Viktor Mikhin

Joe Biden’s administration says it is ready to join talks with Iran and world powers to discuss a return to the 2015 nuclear deal. This allegedly sharply rejects former President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure campaign,” which sought to completely isolate the Islamic Republic. However, the United States is divided over who should take the first step toward…

A new old ritual seems to be taking shape in the new President Joe Biden’s White House, beginning with Jen Psaki’s failed briefings, the “what-if” war games, and discussions in the Oval Office about how to talk to a particular US ally or adversary.  Many times since he took office, President Joe Biden has dialed one world leader or another after reinstating the old rule, which has been a longstanding White…

The latest round of Egyptian-Ethiopian negotiations over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), brokered by former African Union (AU) president Cyril Ramaphosa, ended without agreement, adding another episode to the chain of failed negotiations.  Egypt accused Ethiopia of derailing the GERD negotiations and evading its obligations under…

US President Joe Biden has lifted a series of sanctions against the Yemen Ansar Allah (Houthis) movement, which was listed as a terrorist organization by the former Donald Trump administration.   The US Treasury recalled that former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on January 11 that the Houthis had been designated as a terrorist organization and that the three leaders…

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on the United States and Iran to work together to break the current impasse over the international nuclear agreement, but said he did not expect a quick result.  President Joe Biden’s administration has said it is ready to bring the US back into the agreement after predecessor Donald Trump…

Officials in the Joe Biden administration have already begun to hold behind-the-scenes talks with Iran about returning to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and they informed Israel about the talks, reported Channel 12 News in Israel. The new US president has repeatedly proclaimed his desire to return to the agreement, while Tel Aviv insists that the agreement should…

A senior Israeli official told the London-based Arab news agency Elaph that the Saudis have stopped all behind-the-scenes negotiations with Israel. He claims that Saudi Arabia will not sign any peace agreement with Israel unless there is progress on the Palestinian issue. This and other reports in the world media came about two…

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, now 97 years old and having long lost his sense of the reality of international affairs, recently unleashed a new idea, menacingly declaring that a return to the “spirit” of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal would lead to weapons spread throughout the Middle East. These comments came during an interview with Dennis Ross…

“Iran can easily enrich uranium to 40, 60 or even 90 percent,” claimed Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI). Earlier, Tehran reported that it was able to enrich uranium to 20 percent at the Fordow facility. However, it is 90% uranium that is needed to create nuclear weapons. As for the 20-percent uranium, Tehran…

Saudi Arabia, overtaxing itself in its vain efforts to establish dictatorial control over all the countries on the Arabian Peninsula, has recently moved toward a compromise with Qatar to end a devastating three-year conflict. However, as practice still shows – and many sources close to the negotiations say – a complete resolution remains unattainable, despite the offer…

The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, was dissolved after the government failed to pass its national budget amid bitter coalition disputes between its two main actors: the Likud and Kachol-Lavan (Blue and White) parties. Israel is now preparing for what are its fourth national elections since March 2019 while facing a rampant coronavirus outbreak, economic crisis…

Aside from numerous domestic problems facing President-elect Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats, there are also complex foreign issues, which need to be resolved as quickly as possible. While, for instance, US relations with the Russian Federation and China are, for the moment, strategic in nature, determining and appropriately adjusting the policy…