On May 8, 2018, U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced his decision to end the US’ participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and begin reinstating nuclear-related sanctions against Iran. These extreme measures including the so-called “maximum pressure” policy and attempting to bring Iranian oil exports to “zero” have inflicted excruciating pain on the Islamic Republic. Tehran faces ...
In a recent poll, the Gallup Institute revealed that US’ soft power has been on the wane since Donald Trump took office and continues to decline. In the poll, the United States is reported to have descended from the number one world power in 2016 to world’s third most powerful nation in 2017 and 2018, and may drop to fourth ...
Exactly a year ago, on May 8, 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump took a pivotal decision on pulling his country unilaterally out of the international nuclear agreement on the Iran nuclear deal brokered by international mediators — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany. Trump claimed that the Administration of his predecessor in the Oval Office, ...
Decades-long conflict between the two nuclear-armed powers in Kashmir has had a strong effect on all world powers, leaving allies and enemies intertwined, each player defending its position in the interest of maintaining or improving their position in the world. Given the current geopolitical deadlock, is there anyone with close enough relations to both sides to actually facilitate dialogue? American ...
Not much to our surprise, on Monday February 26th, we learned that United Kingdom finally blacklisted the political wing of the Lebanese resistance movement known as Hezbollah, literally meaning, “The Party of God”, in Arabic. The Neocons who are now back in power in Washington are driven by a pathological obsession against Iran and its ally Hezbollah. These people failed ...
In academia, we’re in constant pursuit of indisputable facts which lead us to truth, the kind of self-evident truth that our founding fathers wrote so much about. And as the gospels teach us, truth shall set us free: Free from constant lies, exaggerations, distortions, distractions, deceptions, diversions and manipulations – basically all the specialties of the mainstream media in the ...
Less than a week after Ali Shamkhani returned to Tehran, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi announced that representatives of the Taliban had visited Tehran and that the Afghan government was aware of the visit. Before the announcement, news and rumors were already circulating claiming that Tehran and Moscow had initiated talks with the Taliban, but Tehran never approved or ...
After Donald Trump took office, Obama and Rouhani’s previous diplomatic efforts and rapprochement were apparently ignored, and the two countries cut off their relations, seemingly reluctant to improve the situation… but perhaps there is more to the situation than meets the eye. Frequent tweets between American and Iranian officials, especially Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo and Mohammad Javad Zarif, covert negotiations ...
The Trump administration, in carrying out plans to blockade the Iranian economy, may end up falling into a financial and legal trap themselves. On November 5th, unilateral sanctions against Iran were put in place by the US. The punitive measures reinstated by the current administration target 700 individuals, banks, aircraft, ships and companies tied to Iran’s energy and financial industries ...
In 2016, the US president Donald J. Trump announced that he wanted to Make America Great Again (MAGA), but he encountered a variety of reactions. The phrase was first introduced during Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign and was used again by Bill Clinton in 1992. However, “MAGA” was first used as an official slogan for an election campaign by president ...
John Bolton recently referred to Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua as a “three tyrants” and announced that sanctions would be imposed against all three. According to him, all three countries will soon experience the “hard sanctions regime”. The main reason, according to Bolton, is human rights violations. The sanctions will include the ban on US citizens who take part in trade ...
Analysts who follow global geopolitical trends frequently come across the phrase: “the 21st century belongs to China”. To lend credibility to the claim, they often mention China’s $1 trillion “one belt, one road” initiative. Through this huge initiative, China is supporting infrastructure projects in strategically-located developing countries while extending loans for those projects. Beijing calls the initiative as a win-win for ...