"The court’s verdict also directed authorities to seize the property and assets of Musharraf, now in self-imposed exile in Dubai, and to issue perpetual arrest warrants for the former dictator."
"The 'America First' foreign policy Trump promised during the campaign is just a memory, and his baffled supporters are left to contemplate the most brazen betrayal in modern American political history."
"For visitors the lure is the culture and history of a sophisticated civilisation, with no fewer than 19 Unesco heritage sites, which had been inaccessible for decades when Iran was shunned as a pariah state. Now the country is also viewed as safe in comparison with other states offering similar attractions in the region – Syria, Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia, Libya – places which have become no-go areas due to the varying degrees of threats from terrorism or civil war. Mr Trump’s repeated threat to withdraw the US from the nuclear agreement, achieved through years of painstaking negotiations, is creating concern that Iran will be pushed back towards isolation."
"The war in Afghanistan has long been an out-of-sight, out-of-mind affair for the American public. To relegate Afghan lives to the mercy of an even less visible force will be to write them off altogether." Continue reading →
"Taliban fighters in Khogyani described how the deaths of family members had caused them to take up arms."
"Amnesty International just released a report that heavily implicates the United States in a number of criminal acts in Mosul, Iraq." Continue reading →
"Ideally, America would stop giving out all foreign aid, but a good place to start would be nixing aid to countries with horrible human rights records." Continue reading →
"Although the states are arguing over their differences, it is their similarities that are the real root of the crisis." Continue reading →
"Bloomberg also debunks the 'official narrative' behind the Gulf crisis and suggests that Saudi Arabia’s isolation of Qatar, 'and the dispute’s long past and likely lingering future are best explained by natural gas.' The reasons for nat gas as the source of discord are numerous and start in 1995 'when the tiny desert peninsula was about to make its first shipment of liquid natural gas from the world’s largest reservoir. The offshore North Field, which provides virtually all of Qatar’s gas, is shared with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s hated rival.'" Continue reading →
"The massive US arms deal with Saudi Arabia signed last month by President Trump is continuing to drive up arms makers’ stock, though at present the exact dollar values for specific companies are a matter of some speculation. These companies and other well-connected US arms makers are all expected to make quite a bit of money off this new arms deal with Saudi Arabia, as well as more money off of President Trump’s planned military spending increases. As the chance of peace suddenly breaking out looks more and more remote, the arms makers are expected to continue raking in money hand over fist." Continue reading →