Special to WorldTribune.com By Sheda Vasseghi The recent death of the late Shah’s twin sister Princess Ashraf Pahlavi (1919-2016) has caused an odd part of the Iranian psyche to resurface once again. Under articles about the princess or the late Shah, some Iranians leave peculiar and negative comments on social media that are illogical, offensive, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Sol W. Sanders President Barak Obama repeatedly refers to the end of his time in office and claims he is no longer campaigning. There is more than a little ambiguity there, however, for his modus operandi is a permanent campaign – even when it is for more limited objectives than the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Norman Bailey Very seldom does a columnist have the experience of having one of his or her predictions begin to take shape within weeks, much less in 24 hours. But that is what has happened. Shortly after writing my column ‘Petro kingdom at risk? 2016’s Mideast power matrix and the Chinese […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Germany says nearly 1.1 million asylum seekers were registered in the country last year, with Syrians making up almost 40 percent of arrivals. The Interior Ministry said on January 6 that 1,091,894 people in total were registered between January and December 2015. Syrians seeking refuge in […]
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has predicted Iran will undergo an “economic boom” with the lifting of international sanctions. Iran and six world powers secured a deal in July 2015 under which Tehran pledged to curtail elements of its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. “The government is running the country under […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Gregory R. Copley, Editor, GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs Senior-level sources in numerous Middle Eastern governments have privately expressed bewilderment at recent and current U.S. government strategies and policies toward the region. But a closer examination of U.S. policies, now almost entirely dictated by the Obama White House, shows no cohesive national […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty The Sunni Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf have expressed support for Saudi Arabia in its diplomatic row with Iran, condemning what they described as Iranian interference in Riyadh’s internal affairs. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia accused Iran of sponsoring terrorism and warned that the kingdom was considering […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Not one week into the New Year, the North Koreans jolted global concerns as well as the Richter scale with a nuclear weapons test. While the underground blast shook the remote Punggye-ri region near the Russian border, the political reverberations of the bomb have been […]
Special to WorldTribune.com by Dr. Jack Caravelli, Geostrategy-Direct Dore Gold, the Director General of Israel’s foreign ministry and a highly experienced diplomat, in late December gave the ministry’s first ever interview to a Saudi media outlet. Speaking to the Saudi-owned online newspaper Elaph, Gold emphasized the common interests Israel and Saudi Arabia have in blunting […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com American ambassadors to South Korea pursue a fine line between defense of the U.S.-Korean alliance and pursuit of North-South reconciliation. If they seem hell-bent on military goals, they’re accused of trying to push Korea into a war that nobody wants. And if they appear overly eager for talks, […]