Author: Jaasir Salmaan

Synopsis Israel’s recent killing of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders and missile attacks on Tehran have made Iran’s dialogue with the West problematic and forced Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to seek closer relations with Russia, China and the Gulf States. The failure of Iran’s strategy of forward defence, as shown in its inability to fend off the Israeli attacks, may compel Iran to acquire a nuclear arsenal earlier. This could derail its hard-won relations with the Gulf States and complicate its desired rapprochement with the West. Commentary Since July 2024, Iran’s policy community has experienced unprecedented events, including the assassinations of…

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia will cut back on subsidies and social assistance by excluding top earners from these benefits, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said when tabling Budget 2025. These include the rationalisation of petrol and education subsidies by moving from blanket subsidy schemes to more targeted initiatives. But the country’s larger urban households with higher incomes will be the hardest hit by this shift, experts say. Keeping to his pledge to tax high-income earners, Datuk Seri Anwar said on Oct 18 that the government will remove fuel subsidies for RON 95, a heavily subsidised petrol, by the middle of 2025. He…

Dubai/Astana (10 June – 60). The Pamiris are an ethnic minority group in Tajikistan, culturally distinct from the majority Tajik population. They have faced persecution and discrimination in their mountain homeland bordering Afghanistan that some experts say amounts to ethnic cleansing and even genocide. One of the lead persecutors is Ministry of Internal Affairs “Maj. Gen.” Shorukh Syedzada, a former football team manager with no law enforcement experience and a confidante of the president’s son and heir designate. The Pamiris continue to be marginalized and oppressed by the authorities. As a result, many Pamiris have been forced to flee their…

Russia may respond to any U.S. confiscation of its currency reserves frozen in the West by seizing the assets, including property and cash, of U.S. citizens and investors in Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, a senior security official, said on Saturday. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill allowing the Biden administration to confiscate Russian assets held in American banks and transfer them to Ukraine, something the Kremlin has said would be illegal and trigger retaliation. In response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, the United States and its allies prohibited transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry and blocked about…

Moscow (28/2). Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that non-governmental organizations in Central Asia have stepped up their anti-Russian activities amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army. Shoigu said this at the board of the Russian Ministry of Defense on February 27. According to him, there are more than 100 “large pro-Western non-governmental organisations” operating in Central Asia, which have more than 16,000 representative offices and branches. “Against the backdrop of the special military operation, these NGOs have significantly increased their anti-Russian activities in order to reduce military-technical, economic and cultural cooperation between the Central Asian states and Russia.…

On the first anniversary of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan’s deadliest border war, marked in September, irascible Kyrgyz national-security chief Kamchybek Tashiev aired his frustrations at the slow progress in talks aimed at demarcating the disputed frontier. Tajikistan, said Tashiev, was making “territorial claims” against Kyrgyzstan in the talks. “But our answer is that there should be no such claims,” Tashiev fumed, noting ominously that Kyrgyzstan had found “new documents” related to the border. “Based on those, we know that many parts of Kyrgyzstan had been given to Tajikistan,” he claimed. “If [Tajikistan] does not renounce its territorial claims against Kyrgyzstan then…

President Joe Biden will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House Tuesday as the U.S. administration increases its push for Congress to approve additional aid to Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia. The visit is intended “to underscore the United States’ unshakeable commitment to supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Russia’s brutal invasion,” the White House said in a statement Sunday. Zelenskyy’s office confirmed that he had accepted Biden’s invitation. He also has been invited to speak to a meeting of all senators. Biden has asked Congress for a $110 billion package of…

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — Johor Ruler Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar has said that among his focus when he takes on the duty as the 17th Yang Di-Pertuan Agong is to stop corruption. In an exclusive interview with the Singapore Straits Times, he said ensuring there is no disunity in the country will be his biggest challenge. He said a stable government must be consistent, with a sustainable policy that is needed to fix the economy. A key cause of political instability, he said, was “sour grapes” by those at the losing end. “You know, people contribute hundreds of millions before elections.…

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 21 (Reuters) – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday that Ukraine’s wheat production may be unable to meet domestic and export demand in the years to come if Black Sea export routes remain blocked and attacks on food infrastructure continue. WFP’s Ukraine director, Matthew Hollingworth, said a forthcoming report by the U.N. Human Rights Office (OHCHR) would show that since mid-July there have been 31 documented attacks on Ukraine’s grain production and export facilities. He told the U.N. Security Council that “28 of these attacks were in Odesa oblast alone, which is home…

Russia’s war with Ukraine has become totally bogged down in the trenches, according to Ukraine’s top general. And the prospect of a long war gives Vladimir Putin and Russia an advantage, Ukraine’s Army Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny said in a sobering interview with the Economist published Wednesday night. In the five months since Ukraine launched an eagerly awaited counteroffensive, its troops have advanced only 17 kilometers through heavily fortified and mined Russian defense lines. The counteroffensive has already disappointed many Ukrainian partners, some of whom are now demanding an end to military aid with the war deadlocked. However, the West’s cautious provision of…