Category: Opinion

Tue 26 November 2019: Since Friday, massive protests have spread to more than 100 cities across Iran, in response to a sudden rise in gas prices. An estimated 100 banks and 57 shops have burned down. Iranian security forces have arrested more than 1,000 people and killed at least 12, though activists put the number as high […]

Tue 11 August 2020: Counter-revolutionary forces are seeking to resurrect the military dictatorship model the Arab Spring dismantled. With the breakout of the Arab Spring more than eight years ago, pro-democracy activists in the Arab world and elsewhere were hopeful that the tide of democratic change might have finally reached its shores. Many who had criticised the […]

Sat 23 November 2019: The graphic video shows four men in camouflage gear exchanging jokes in unaccented Russian as they pour flammable liquid over a man’s mutilated corpse strung up on two wooden beams. Before setting it alight and watching it burn as they pose for the camera, they scrawl a Russian phrase praising the […]

Fri 22 November 2019: On the day after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death, President Trump identified an unlikely partner in the global fight against ISIS. “Iran is right there,” he said, along with Russia, Syria, Turkey and Iraq, all of which maintain close ties with Tehran. “They all hate ISIS,” the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. It’s a […]

Fri 22 November 2019: The anti-Muslim sentiments that helped him get elected are likely to shape Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s tenure as president. On Saturday, Sri Lankans elected Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a former secretary of defence and brother of two-time former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as their new president in an election that has seen rising religious tensions take centre stage.  […]

Fri 15 November 2019: After few years of consternation and reassessment of its previous round, the Arab Spring seems to be returning with renewed vigor. During the eight years that separate the first round from this one, lessons must have been learned. As a result the strategy of the protesting crowds in many Arab capitals […]

Mon 11 November 2019: I SUBMIT that the recent Ayodhya verdict of the Supreme Court will go down in the annals of Indian legal history in the same category as its decision in ADM Jabalpur vs Shivakant Shukla, 1975, the only difference being that unlike the latter, in this one there is not a single […]

OPINION: Israel is bad news for Botswana Thu 07 November 2019: During the 1970s and 1980s, the white-minority South African government – in a bid to normalise apartheid and shore up support for its oppressive policies – employed a policy of “helpfulness” to entice African states, including Botswana, into closer cooperation and friendly relations with […]

Iran’s role to dominate Iraqi economy Tue 05 November 2019: Successive crises facing the Iraqi economy, especially after 2003, and Iraq’s dependence almost entirely on the rentier oil economy, but the most important in this article is to highlight the Iranian role in the acquisition and control by all means and methods on the Iraqi […]

Don’t lose sight of Syria’s main terrorist leader Sun 03 November 2019: So, after a dramatic press conference presided over by Donald Trump, we are led to believe that Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi died in an underground tunnel “whimpering and crying” like a dog. There will be few tears shed for the terrorist leader […]