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Shifting Middle Eastern sands

THE unexpected thaw between Saudi Arabia and Iran is a major diplomatic triumph for China. In a rapprochement mediated by Beijing, the two archrivals, which had been engaged in a bitter…

Israel’s Yemen strike will embolden Houthis

Israel’s first attack on Yemen’s Houthis, who have defied months of strikes by the United States and Britain, will likely only embolden the rebels, analysts say. Saturday’s strike on the…

Horrors of Yemen, the forgotten war

This week’s column is an embarrassed response to a riveting reader’s comment from last week, where I lamented that Israel’s success in derailing all attempts at ceasefire meant that “bombs,…

Corruption, justice and accountability

Pakistan’s ranking on the global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), announced this week by the Berlin-based corruption watchdog, Transparency International, shows that during 2023 the country’s ranking was 133 while the…

China and the new Middle East: Part – I

Due to its growing role in the Middle East, China is emerging as “an economic heavyweight…a diplomatic lightweight and…a military featherweight” in the region (RAND Corporation). There is no doubt…

Saudi reset and the new Arab order

Arab and Persian chieftains have been playing war and peace around the Persian Gulf since the great army of the Muslim Rashidun caliphate dethroned a divided and decentralised House of…

War, media and the West

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has re-emerged as ‘the war of this century’ after the Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen wars. But this one differs from all the previous wars. The recent…

Pakistan and the OIC

PAKISTAN will be hosting the 48th meeting of the OIC Conference of Foreign Ministers (CFM) from March 22 to 23 this year, which will coincide with the 75th anniversary celebrations of Pakistan…