Salman Rafi Sheikh

While the election of Ebrahim Raisi, who is known as a “hardliner” and “conservative” as opposed to the “moderate” Raisani, as Iran’s president could make a compromise difficult in the on-going negotiations between the US and Iran for reviving the JCPOA, the election of Raisi has also added a new variable of fear to the equation that could alter the whole landscape...

With Saudi Arabia’s ‘Vision 2030’ already in full motion, it has become increasingly clear that the purpose of this massive and multi-billion dollar economic transformation plan is not just to transform and diversify Saudia’s oil-dependent economy; rather a cardinal objective of this plan is to restore Saudia Arabia’s central position within...

The recently held G7 summit in the UK and NATO summit in Brussels effectively demonstrate how the Western alliance under the US leadership is expanding its ideological horizon to counter China. While the alliance remains anti-Russia for reasons that are both historical and geo-politically relevant, the fact that NATO is now particularly focused on China shows how...