Special to WorldTribune.com ABU DHABI — There are few greater oil powers than Iraq, and few more vulnerable entities than Iraq’s northern autonomous region of Kurdistan. So, how is it that Western energy majors are abandoning Iraq for Kurdistan? The answer lies in a key lesson of Arab Spring: Western companies, burned in Libya, would […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The tenth anniversary this week of the opening salvos in the American “shock-and-awe” campaign against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq reminds us of the “axis-of-evil” speech delivered by George W. Bush in his state-of-the-union address on Jan. 20, 2002, a year after he was inaugurated. No one would dispute Bush’s […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Brian M Downing The ten years since the outset of the Second Gulf War have provided time to assess the geopolitical consequences it has brought, though a fuller judgment will come only after many more years. Putting aside the justifications and criticisms from the war period, we might look at how […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Fariborz Saremi It was hoped the overthrow of Saddam would herald a new age of democracy and growth in Iraq. Instead chaos, destruction and inter-faction bloodshed followed. Discreetly, however, away from the spotlight of the international press, another less obvious change has been going on: The Iran revolutionary system has been […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Compiled by Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com The U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp has decided to sell its stakes in the West Qurna phase 1 oilfield in Iraq. Exxon will sell its stakes to Chinese state-run oil giant China National Petroleum Corp [CNPC], China’s official newspaper China Daily confirmed on Jan. 24. With […]
Special to WorldTribune.com BAGHDAD — The Sunni minority has launched protests that hampered relations with neighboring Jordan. Sunni demonstrators have been blocking roads in the western Iraqi province of Anbar. The protesters blocked a highway to Jordan and Syria, which halted trade and passengers to and from Iraq. “The [Iraqi] Defense Ministry has ordered the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com (Originally posted on Aug. 26, 2003.) U.S. intelligence suspects Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction have finally been located. Unfortunately, getting to them will be nearly impossible for the United States and its allies, because the containers with the strategic materials are not in Iraq. Instead they are located in Lebanon’s heavily-fortified Bekaa […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Dr. Assad Homayoun and Gregory Copley, Editor, GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs Iran, no less than the European Union or the United States of America, faces a series of problems which place it at a critical strategic junction. It now faces urgent challenges, the response to which will determine its viability — […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Gregory Copley, Global Information System Most strategic allies of the United States are waking up after the long Cold War and post-Cold War party with the realization that their efforts to integrate their military doctrine with that of the U.S. have led them to evolve force structures which require enormous capital investment […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Though it’s the birthplace of Christianity in ancient times, the modern Middle East is increasingly hostile to Christianity as civil conflict, Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism grow in scope and strength. Although most regional states have a small but successful Christian minority ranging from Egypt to Iraq, only Lebanon, Israel […]
