Eurasia

Xi Jinping backs Palestine entry into Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as Beijing offers to Mediate Israeli-Palestinian Peace

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas accomplished a great deal on his 4-day visit to Beijing, including a Chinese agreement to try to bring Palestine into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, if the other members agree. Chinese President Xi Jinping and he announced on Tuesday a strategic partnership. Some months ago Foreign Minister […]

Bangladesh

Iran leads charge for De-Dollarization at Asian Banks Meeting

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Asian Exchange Union is not a famous international organization, but its meeting on Tuesday in Tehran may have started the ball rolling on a momentous change in global finance, since it dealt with the possibility of de-dollarization. According to the Iranian press, banking representatives from Iran, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan, […]

China

Can the U.S. Adjust Sensibly to a Multipolar World?

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink) – In his 1987 book The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, historian Paul Kennedy reassured Americans that the decline the United States was facing after a century of international dominance was “relative and not absolute, and is therefore perfectly natural; and that the only serious threat to the real interests […]

China

Does the Rise of China in Eurasia mean the Fall of the United States as the Global Power?

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com) – From the ashes of a world war that killed 80 million people and reduced great cities to smoking rubble, America rose like a Titan of Greek legend, unharmed and armed with extraordinary military and economic power, to govern the globe. During four years of combat against the Axis leaders in Berlin and […]

China

Why the world should take Notice as Saudi Arabia joins Chinese Alliance – and how this relates to Taiwan

The Conversation

By Andrew MacLeod, King’s College London | – (The Conversation) – Saudi Arabia’s cabinet recently approved the decision to join the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). This could be a signal that Riyadh, with all its energy reserves, is choosing sides in the Ukraine war. Saudi Arabia, in part stung by US president Joe Biden’s […]

Eurasia

Those Iranian Planes Ferrying Drones to Moscow Flew over Georgia: But who gave Permission?

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Nadia Beard | – ( RFE/ RL) – TBILISI — Georgia’s position on the war in Ukraine has again come under domestic scrutiny after three Iran Air Cargo planes allegedly carrying drones to Russia passed through Georgian airspace. Over the last few days, Georgian opposition figures have called for answers from the government, accusing […]

India

Ukraine War Fallout: Russia and Iran Plot Alternative Gulf Trade Route to Avoid US Sanctions

Gilbert Achcar

By Gilbert Achkar | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Naturally, one of the consequences of the sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia is to stimulate the latter’s search for ways to bypass the restrictions. Since the actions taken by Western countries to punish Russia for its annexation of Crimea and its first […]

Afghanistan

Central Asian Stans Fear Afghan Militancy while their Russian Ally is Bogged down in Ukraine

Global Voices

By Zhar Zardykhan | – Read this post in Malagasy ( GlobalVoices.org) – On May 8, 2022, the Taliban-led government of Afghanistan reported that they are investigating Islamic State (IS) rockets attack on Tajikistan from Afghanistan’s Takhar Province, as IS admitted firing eight rockets on May 7 towards “unspecified military targets in Tajikistan.” In reaction, […]

Arab World

Climate Crisis: Middle East is Heating up Twice as Fast as Global Average

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Christoph Duenwald et al. at the International Monetary Fund have a new report out that finds that temperatures in the Middle East and Central Asia have already risen by 2.7 degrees F. (1.5C) over the past century, at a rate twice as fast as that of the rest of the […]