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West Asia - 4. page

Islamic State: The Money Behind the Monstrosity

In an Op-Ed article for the newspaper ‘Economic Times’, Dr Adil Rasheed (Senior Research Scholar of the USI) has written how the Islamic State or the ISIS has developed a “hybrid form of funding” that relies on a mafia-inspired business model that feeds on extortion, looting, kidnapping, smuggling and racketeering.

US-Israel relations hit new low after Bibi’s re-election as Israeli prime minister

US President Barack Obama says prospects for a two-state solution in the Middle East are “dim” after the Israeli prime minister vowed to oppose a Palestinian state. Mr Netanyahu’s statements angered the White House, even though he has since tried to soften his remark. Meanwhile, senior White House officials have learned Israel was spying on the closed-door talks between US and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program. US-Israel ties have hit a new low.

Why the fall of Yemen’s government is a huge problem for Saudi Arabia

The takeover of the capital Sanaa by the Shiite Houthi rebels has been viewed as the expansion of Iran’s influence in the Arabian peninsula and the diminution of Sunni influence in the region. The presence of Al-Qaeda in the war-torn country is raising alarm bells for the country to fever pitch.

Maybe, it’s too early to write off the US and call the 21st Century an Asian Age

Veteran strategist Dr Anthony H. Cordesman writes that the tendency among some experts to presume the decline of the US and the rise of Asia as a given is too premature an assumption. In addition, the geopolitical guru avers that to assert America’s pivot to Asia (mainly the Far East) at the expense of its involvement in the Middle East is also unfounded.

Neo-Ottomanism in Tatters

Turkey’s self-righteous grandstanding is isolating it internationally, writes Dr. Adil Rasheed, Senior Research Fellow (West Asia Asia) at the Center for Strategic Studies and Simulation, USI.