quoting Fabrice Balanche via Asia Times
The Donald Trump administration’s quiet push for a Saudi-led “Arab NATO,” tentatively known as the Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA), is emblematic of an increasingly destabilizing and militarized US policy toward the Middle East.
Clifford D. May - The Washington Times
Not so long ago, freedom and democracy seemed to be on the march in the world, with Turkey and Pakistan, two strategically important Muslim-majority nations, near the front of the parade. That turns out to have been an illusion. Elections recently held in these countries have, paradoxically, made that clear. In Turkey, votes cast in June gave President Recep Tayyip Erdogan powers he has long coveted. He is now, effectively, head of state and government, the military and the judiciary. For quite some time now, he also has been censoring the media, instructing private industry and filling his jails with enemies and dissidents... Read more
Iran is engaged in intense diplomacy ahead of the imminent reimposition of US sanctions. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met Thursday with his counterparts from Russia, Turkey, Japan, Malaysia, Norway, the Philippines and Vietnam on the sidelines of his trip to Singapore, where he is expected to sign an association agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). "All stressed [the] expansion of ties, imperative of promoting multilateralism and resilience and innovation to preserve [the 2015 nuclear deal]," Zarif tweeted. Read More
The new governor of the Central Bank of Iran late Sunday announced new policies to prop up the sagging rial. Foreign exchange bureaus will be allowed to operate again, while imports of currency and gold will be exempt from taxes. On the same day, the spokesman for the judiciary announced the arrest of Ahmad Araghchi, the recently dismissed deputy governor of the Central Bank responsible for foreign exchange. Araghchi is a nephew of Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi, who helped negotiate the nuclear deal. Read More