A Eurasian Jigsaw: BRI and INSTC Interconnectivity Will Complete the Puzzle

Pepe Escobar Shrugging off western obstacles, Eurasia’s ambitious connectivity projects helmed by China and Russia are now progressing deep into Asia’s Heartland SAMARKAND – Interconnecting Inner Eurasia is an exercise in Taoist equilibrium: adding piece by piece, patiently, to a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. It takes time, skill, vision, and of course major breakthroughs. A key piece…

White House Finalizes the Theft of Afghanistan’s Foreign Reserves

The Cradle On the first anniversary of the Taliban’s victory against the US-trained army, Washington unilaterally decided to keep $7bln of Afghanistan’s foreign reserves The government of US President Joe Biden has decided not to return Afghanistan’s foreign reserves and suspended talks with Taliban officials over the issue. “We do not see recapitalization of the Afghan central…

How a Missile in Kabul Connects to a Speaker in Taipei

Pepe Escobar Washington’s hard power display of taking out Al-Qaeda’s Al-Zawahiri will not be reciprocated by Beijing over Pelosi’s provocative visit to Taiwan. It does however, definitively bury the decades-long era of cooperative US-Chinese relations. This is the way the “Global War on Terror” (GWOT) ends, over and over again: not with a bang, but a…

Political Crisis in Iraq: Assault on the Iraqi Parliament and Impossibility of Forming a National Government

Yoselina Guevara López Protesters try to remove concrete barriers and cross the bridge towards the Green Zone area in Baghdad, Iraq. 30 July, 2022. | Image: The Cradle This Saturday, July 30, for the second time in the same week, hundreds of followers of the Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr stormed the Iraqi Parliament confronting…

Russia in Africa: Connecting Continents with Soft Power

Matthew Ehret The oft-repeated western claim of Russia’s isolation as a pariah state is starting to wear thin. While the Trans-Atlantic community may loyally follow the directive to cut ties with Russia – despite the economic backlash on their own citizens – other nations, including most of Asia and Africa, don’t appear to be taking this…

Recent Developments With Russia and the World Point Inexorably to a New World Order

James ONeill Last week there was a meeting of Russian President Putin and President Erdogan of Turkey and President Raisi of Iran in Iran’s capital Teheran. Only a short time ago a meeting of these three men, especially in Iran’s capital of Teheran, would have been unthinkable. The meeting was a measure of how much…

US & EU Hindering Russo-Turkey Efforts to Solve Food Crisis, Mediate Peace

Ekaterina Blinova On July 22, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine signed documents aimed at resolving the problems of supplying food and fertilizers to world markets and ensuring safe maritime corridors for Ukrainian grain. The Joint Coordination Center will make sure that Kiev does use the grain shipments to import weaponry. “The signing of the grain agreement…

Sergey Lavrov: US/UK/EU “Using Food for Geopolitical Adventurism is Unacceptable & Inhumane”

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s Statement Regarding Agreements on Transporting Ukrainian Grain from Black Sea Ports and on Promoting Russian Exports of Food and Fertilisers, Moscow, July 22, 2022 A ceremony for the simultaneous signing of two documents on maritime shipping of Ukrainian grain and the export of Russian agricultural products – Initiatives for the safe…

US “Iran Nuclear Deal” Ploy Coming Full Circle

Brian Berletic Hopes for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) simply known as the Iran Nuclear Deal seemed to fade further during US President Joe Biden’s recent trip to Israel where the US and Israeli governments signed a pledge to use force against Iran should it pursue nuclear weapons (weapons both the US and…

Moscow, Kiev and Ankara Reach Grain Agreement in Istanbul

Observateur Continental Negotiations on the export of Ukrainian grain from the part of the Black Sea controlled by the Ukrainian army took place in Istanbul. Military delegations from Russia, Turkey and Ukraine as well as representatives of the UN came to Istanbul to discuss the food crisis. So what is the substance of the planned…

Staged Incidents as the Western Approach to Doing Politics

Sergey Lavrov The staged incidents, no matter how long they go on, will not work. It is time for fair play based on the international law rather than cheating. The sooner everyone realises that there are no alternatives to objective historical processes where a multipolar world is formed based on respect for the principle of…

China, Russia and Iran to Conduct Military Exercises in Latin America

Alexandre Lemoine Beijing, Moscow and Tehran intend to make a show of force for the United States in their “backyard.” The three countries plan to hold joint naval maneuvers off the coast of Latin America and the Caribbean in early August. According to experts, this is a sign that some Latin American countries intend to…