Salman Rafi Sheikh

Barak Obama’s visit to Saudi Arabia has happened at a time when political friction between the two states has reached a point where both have started to ‘threaten’ each other—hence, the need for bringing their ties back to ‘normal.’ While...

The apparent pomp and show of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman’s visit to Turkey carries a lot of strategic baggage as both countries prepare to open an entirely new chapter in the history of their bi-lateral relations, which have, historically...

The U.S. governments have always, as a matter of policy tradition, invoked the ‘nuclear question’ only selectively. Whereas the U.S. frequently tries to establish its global hegemonic position...

Amid the fast changing geo-politics of the Mid-East, Israel’s strategic manoeuvering appears to be aimed at raising the country’s bargaining position vis-à-vis not only some of its regional competitors such as Turkey and Iran but also its...

While the United States and Russia continue to contest the future of Syria despite some reasonable progress achieved on the subject, their bi-lateral competition hardly seems to have eased down. Nor will it as global powers continue to...

Recent days have witnessed some serious developments taking place with regard to international efforts at peacefully ending the war in Syria. While Russia’s decision to withdraw bulk of its fighting force from Syria does indicate...

While the Syrian crisis has been temporarily shelved through ‘cease-fire’, Erdogan’s own war for kingly political powers continues un-abated. Its latest manifestation came with Turkish state taking over Turkey’s top-selling newspaper Zaman...

After experimenting with taking a belligerent stance on the Syrian question, Turkey seems to be shifting to diplomacy once again. This shift does make sense given that belligerence has cost Turkey a lot. On the domestic front, Turkey has...

Weary of the House of Saud’s monstrous creation called ISIL and its reach to Europe, European countries seem to be inclining towards creating a ‘distance’ from Saudi Arabia. Or is it? The latest instance of this so-called ‘distance’ came on...

Saudi Arabia’s offer to send ground troops to Syria, which is actually an offer diametrically opposite to the $10bn the international community has offered to provide ‘relief’ to the people of Syria, is likely to result in escalation of...

While Russia and Saudi Arabia may have reached some sort of understanding regarding the production of oil, the Syrian question remains unresolved and it is likely to remain so unless the ‘production’ of proxy groups is absolutely cut...

While Turkey, backed by the Western propaganda as it is, officially continues to blame Russia for the so-called ‘in-human’ strikes in Syria, its own direct---un-authorised and illegitimate—bombing of Syria has actually resulted in the death of...