Salman Rafi Sheikh

The on-going crisis in the Middle East was bound to trigger some significant geo-political changes in the region, especially in the form of formation of major alliances and counter-alliances. While the US led coalition is clearly pitted against…

It was not so long ago when we had argued in an article for NEO that an Iran-US nuclear deal would send political jolts across the entire Middle Eastern political landscape. As such, ever since the deal, what we have been observing in the Middle East is…

Recent executions in Saudi Arabia and the way these were publicized and given air through a diplomatic rift with Iran are, in fact, a glaring reflection of how the House of Saud is diverting its public’s attention away from the way it has been squandering…

If we were to believe Erdogan’s up-beat ‘anti-terror’ rhetoric, we might also be tempted to believe that Turkey, led by him, has been one of the most important states fighting terrorist organizations since the beginning of the current phase of the conflict in…

While Turkish propaganda, being backed as it is by the U.S., about shooting down a Russian jet is based upon the so-called notion of “State Sovereignty”, hardly anyone seems to question the multiple violations of Syrian state’s…

It is rather hard to deny that Russian military success in Syria against the CIA backed terrorist organizations have left the U.S. is a state of quandary. Therefore, the U.S. has, since the beginning of Russian campaign…

In no surprising a manner, the “Great” Britain has, too, jumped on the U.S. led Syrian bandwagon to avail itself of the opportunity to refresh its “lost glory” as a “great empire.” With David Cameron leading the ‘legion’, the “Great Britain” is all set…

There is a marked difference between what was happening in Syria before the Russian campaign against terrorist organizations started and what is happening today. If terrorist organizations, such as ISIL, are today on the run, that is…

There’s no denying that the Russian military campaign against ISIS in Syria has really off-set the organization’s militant stranglehold and that this campaign has practically led to re-orientation of the Middle East’s strategic landscape that…

Since the beginning of the Russian military campaign against ISIS and other terrorist outfits in Syria, the US has been finding it difficult to devise a counter-balancing strategy. It would not be an exaggeration to contend that…

While the latest elections in Turkey certainly reflect the ‘march of democracy’, it also signifies, with equal force, virtually un-democratic processes which have been going on for last few years and that will only increase further as a result of…

The (Western supportedDahJTkfw war in Syria has seen, since its start in 2011, many upheavals, with the latest twist coming with Assad’s surprise visit to Moscow. However, just as the West is struggling to come to terms with Russia over politically solving…