... meeting of analysts from European Council of Foreign Relations and Russian Middle East experts.
According to
Daniel Levy
, ECFR Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program, settlement of the Syria situation should impact both relations with Iran and its talks with the "group of six" on the nuclear program. Mr. Levy believes that the Syria and Iran issues should be linked. When intentions for military solution in Syria prevail, Iran's domestic situation goes one way, but if diplomacy ...
... the spot. Trying to hold onto power through terror, the Assad regime gravely undermined its legitimacy and, worse, triggered a civil war.
As the violence in Syria escalated, a regional conflict morphed into an issue of international concern. Russia, Iran, Lebanon’s militia group Hizbullah, and China backed the Assad regime. The so-called “Friends of Syria,” including Gulf states, Jordan, Turkey, the European Union, and the United States, took the side of the Syrian opposition. Due ...
In light of the recent developments in Syria and the apparently imminent US military intervention, the blog will take a short break from its relatively academic style and its thematic focus in order to brainstorm and share some thoughts on the broader picture of what is happening in the geopolitical arena of the region. Dangerous Double Standards Bashar al-Assad has reportedly used chemical weapons to attack, essentially, his own people. The first, logically obvious question is why would Assad essentially...
Interview with Viktor Averkov, RIAC expert
Interview
Iran today is a country burdened by numerous international sanctions that hamper both its economic development and its ability to cooperate with other states, including Russia. The inauguration of its new president may help change the situation and bring ...
... decision-making with regard to smart sanctions. Currently, there are 13 such committees. The activities of 11 of them are country-oriented, namely Somalia, Iraq, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Sudan, Lebanon, North Korea, Iran, Libya and Guinea-Bissau. The work of two committees focuses on sanctions against terrorist organizations of
Al Qaeda and the Taliban movement
.
UN Security Council Sanctions Committees, composed of representatives of all Security Council members,...
In two months, Iran will go to the polls to elect a new president. Whoever emerges triumphant, the world will view the result with hope. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, renowned for his harsh, anti-Israeli and anti-U.S. sentiment, is leaving office, having served his maximum two ...
One Region – Many Problems and Objectives
In 2013, the Caspian Region should be eventful, with the Fourth Caspian Summit to take place by the end of the year, and presidential elections in Iran in June and in Azerbaijan in October. In the first half of the year, Barack Obama is going to unveil his second-term regional foreign policy priorities, which will to a great extent define the situation around Iran's nuclear program and the solution ...
... focus on the logic of the method.
This method assumes that everything in the world is relative. Especially in politics, where political behavior and events are often ambiguous and are difficult to measure. For example, it is not quite clear whether Iran wants to cooperate with the United States at all. In February Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose support is considered crucial for any major foreign policy decisions, said that direct talks between Iran and the United States ...
Even with stiff economic sanctions in force, a joint U.S. – Israeli military operation against Iran seems the most likely scenario for the evolving conflict over the Iranian nuclear program. A “hot phase” would pose numerous risks and challenges to Iran’s neighbors, including Russia. The confrontation would face the adjacent countries ...
The
press
has received information that the Iranian authorities and the Afghan movement Taliban intend to enter into a tactical alliance against the common enemy – the United States. What can be this cooperation? Are both sides interested in it? Can this alliance of two U.S. adversaries alter ...
