Djibouti: Tiny strategic hub plays host to armies from seven nations

Djibouti: Tiny strategic hub plays host to armies from seven nations

Special to WorldTribune.com By Backgrounder, Geostrategy-Direct.com Djibouti, a former French colony, is a country of searing heat (summer temperatures average over 100 degrees) and little rain (17 days a year on average). The population of the East African state is 900,000, which ranks 159th in the world. But the tiny state on the Horn of […]

Cultural glitches: Why does the Iranian community (and also the U.S. academy) demonize national self interest?

Cultural glitches: Why does the Iranian community (and also the U.S. academy) demonize national self interest?

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, […]

Are Arab media correct? Is Obama really campaigning for top ‘messianic’ UN job?

Are Arab media correct? Is Obama really campaigning for top ‘messianic’ UN job?

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 […]

Why the petro kingdom executed a prominent Shiite cleric

Why the petro kingdom executed a prominent Shiite cleric

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 […]

U.S. air strike incinerates ‘millions’ in ISIL cash

U.S. air strike incinerates ‘millions’ in ISIL cash

Special to WorldTribune.com U.S.-led coalition air strikes destroyed an Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) facility in Mosul, Iraq that contained “millions of dollars” in cash, according to a Jan. 11 report. Multiple 2,000-pound bombs hit the facility, which a U.S. defense official told AFP contained a stockpile of cash that “we estimate in […]

Iran caught in lie about firing rockets adjacent to U.S. ships

Iran caught in lie about firing rockets adjacent to U.S. ships

Special to WorldTribune.com New video footage released by the U.S. Navy contradicts Iran’s claim that it did not launch rockets near American warships in the Strait of Hormuz. According to the Navy, the video shot late last month shows Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) ships firing the rockets near Western warships, including the USS Harry S […]

Unprecedented U.S. Mideast strategy is ad hoc, disregards existing frameworks

Unprecedented U.S. Mideast strategy is ad hoc, disregards existing frameworks

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 […]

North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un starts 2016 with a bang

North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un starts 2016 with a bang

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 […]

Kerry says done deal with Iran ‘days away’ as key Democrats press Obama for new sanctions

Kerry says done deal with Iran ‘days away’ as key Democrats press Obama for new sanctions

Special to WorldTribune.com The nuclear deal between Iran and world powers is “days away” from implementation, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Jan. 7. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif “made it clear to me they intend to complete obligations with respect to implementation day as rapidly as possible,” Kerry said. “And we […]

Iraqi immigrant detained in Calif. suspected of lying about ties to terror groups

Iraqi immigrant detained in Calif. suspected of lying about ties to terror groups

Special to WorldTribune.com An Iraqi refugee is being detained in California on charges he lied to immigration authorities over his ties to terror groups before regaining entry into the United States. Federal Agents in Sacramento arrested Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, 23, an Iraqi-born Palestinian. Al-Jayab allegedly traveled to Syria “to fight alongside terrorist organizations and […]