Posts tagged : "International relations"

Kourosh Ziabari - The New Arab: In today's irreversibly globalised world, international travelling and mobility are not merely deemed a privilege, but a fundamental entitlement the informed and probing citizens of the 21st century assertively expect the governments to provide. To a large extent, the power of the passports people hold illustrates the standing of their countries in the community of nations, the shades of respectful treatment they receive while away from home, and in many cases, the boundaries of their freedoms and prerogatives. Last October, the London-headquartered global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners published its quarterly repertoire of the most desirable passports in terms of their...

Kourosh Ziabari - The New Arab: Withdrawing from the internationally-celebrated Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, extolled by every major democratic leader in the world at the time it was signed, was not only a foreign policy blunder on behalf of the former US President Donald Trump but a catastrophic betrayal of years of painstaking efforts to resolve one of the intractable dilemmas of international relations and the instigation of a critical nuclear proliferation risk. When the JCPOA was agreed, the EU high commissioner for foreign policy Federica Mogherini said it could "open the way to a new chapter in international relations." Trump wreaked havoc on that opening. But instead of filling the void ensuing that misstep by...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: When Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi recently posed for a photo-op with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the top-level meeting in Moscow was trumpeted by state media as a bilateral “turning point,” “new chapter” and even “diplomatic triumph.” But a closer examination of the optics suggests something unspoken is still diplomatically amiss. Critical observers of the January 19 meeting noted that Raisi’s arrival at the Kremlin was not received by a guard of honor befitting his status as a foreign leader. In the meeting room, the two countries’ flags were not placed, which the same observers noted is a rarity for Putin’s meetings with heads of government and even a possible...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Negotiations to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), popularly known as the Iran nuclear deal, which had come to a halt in June pending a power transition in Tehran, resumed in Vienna on November 29 for the first time in the administration of President Ebrahim Raisi, but after two rounds of intense haggling, the prospects for a breakthrough seem dim. Talks recommenced this week after a brief respite requested by Iran on Friday, December 24. Interlocutors involved in the delicate horse-trading have bluntly blamed the Islamic Republic for the current gridlock, unimpressed that the new negotiating team appointed by President Raisi has been making demands that breach the scope of the JCPOA...

Kourosh Ziabari - Foreign Policy: Since taking office, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other top officials in President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration have repeatedly floated their new “balanced foreign policy” approach that prioritizes developing closer ties with neighbors and bolstering alliances with Asian countries. Shortly after his confirmation as the nation’s top diplomat in August, for instance, Amir-Abdollahian wrote on his Instagram page that he would pursue “a balanced, active, dynamic, and smart foreign policy based on mutual respect, prioritization of relations with neighbors and Asia, development of balanced relations with all regions of the world, and the strengthening of the role...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: More than a year after the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklisted Iran as a “high-risk jurisdiction” subject to a call for action, debate on the ratification of FATF-related bills has been rekindled in Tehran. Reformists are blaming conservatives for stonewalling the normalization of the country’s banking and trade relations with the outside world – an issue that will indirectly factor in the June 18 presidential election where a conservative candidate will almost certainly win. Headquartered in Paris, FATF is an intergovernmental body set up by the G7 in 1989 to draw up binding regulations to combat money laundering. In...

Kourosh Ziabari - ODVV: Climate change is a complex threat to life on Earth, driving countless shifts worldwide, and it is only through collective action on the individual, national, regional and international levels that it can be addressed meaningfully. The provision of food, fiber, fuel and freshwater, without which human society and its economy cannot survive, is jeopardized by the rising global temperature and record levels of land and freshwater exploitation. The UN Secretary General António Guterres has termed climate change the “defining challenge of our time.” Some experts talk of climate change as a “threat multiplier” that even has the potential to increase the risk of political instability and terrorism. Climate...

Kourosh Ziabari - ODVV: The novel agreements on the normalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and the governments of United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan have unveiled evolving paradigms in the geopolitical landscape of Middle East and North Africa. The accords expose how pan-Arab, pan-Islamic ambitions are being discarded by the regional states in favor of economic, technological and military incentives that initiating relations with the Jewish state might bring about. The majority of Palestinians feel they are abandoned following the signing of the Abraham Accords, brokered by the outgoing Trump administration. A September poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research has found an overwhelming...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: While US-Iran relations are apparently warming, with hopes rising of a resumption of the scuppered Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear pact, Washington continues to pile on punitive measures, particularly in the technology sector. The US government recently imposed a penalty of US$8 million on Germany’s SAP Software Solutions for “illegally” exporting US-origin software, including upgrades and security fixes, to Iranian users. The sale violated the technology sanctions placed on the Middle East nation, which is home to nearly 60 million internet users. From 2010 to 2017, SAP and its international partners exported the technology a total of 20,000 times to people in Iran and...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: As the world was mesmerized by the spectacle of the presidential race in the United States, attention was diverted from other headline-making issues, at least fleetingly. In particular, it looks as though the dust has settled on the latest civilizational clash between the West and the Islamic world following the reprinting of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo and the brutal murder of Samuel Paty, a French middle-school teacher who had shown the cartoons in one of his classes. A debate on the appropriateness of republishing the controversial cartoons, the degree to which they caused offense to Muslims worldwide, the sanctity of freedom of speech in a...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: The theatrical presidential race in the US is over after a blistering campaign season. Even though the loser has defied a long-standing tradition by refusing to concede defeat and congratulate his challenger, it is safe to assume Joe Biden will be sworn in on January 20, 2021, as the 46th president of the United States. Newspapers, radio and TV stations, and news agencies are flooded with analysis and commentaries about how this election was epoch-making and unparalleled, what should be expected of Joe Biden, eyed by millions of Americans, as well as people in the four corners of the globe to undo the damage done by the eccentric Donald Trump to the pillars of democracy and multilateralism, and what...

Kourosh Ziabari - ODVV: Unilateralism is often described as a tendency of countries to conduct their foreign affairs individualistically, involving limited coordination with other nations and minimal regard for the preferences and interests of other states, including allies. The term "unilateralism," which is believed to have emerged in 1926, denotes an approach to foreign policy characterized by the powerful states' neglecting of international institutions, international norms and legal constraints. Today, most international relations scholars point to the United States when trying to exemplify the unilateral policies of hegemonic powers. Experts of international politics agree that the United States has been instrumental in...