Tag Archives: Persian Gulf

Geo-political considerations and commercial interests – not morality and principles -currently define international relations, argues one Pakistani analyst.

Are consumers in the United States and other countries likely to suffer because of the tensions in the Strait of Hormuz? So far, that has not been the case in terms of fuel costs.

Why a purportedly ‘limited’ attack by the U.S. is likely — and worrying.

Iran is set to receive the advanced J-10 fighter jets from China without paying a dollar by signing a contract to allow Beijing exploit its largest oilfield for the next 20 years.

Iran’s Chabahar port is challenging the significance of Pakistan’s Gwadar deep sea port. The project is strategically important particularly for India due to its land access to Afghanistan and Central Asia which is otherwise blocked by the territory of Pakistan.

Central Asia’s share of the world’s reserves of natural gas is somewhat higher at 11 per cent; still, it falls short of the Middle East’s share, 43 per cent. Hydrocarbon rents have enabled the authoritarian regimes in Central Asia to provide the welfare services that ensure their populations’ acquiescence in their government.

When Americans talk about ‘energy independence’ they are talking about oil and the Middle East. Forecasts that the US may become close to energy self-sufficient in net terms by 2035 have once again made this verbal icon of US energy policy a popular ‘sound bite’. But its use is both inaccurate and misleading, and without a seismic shift in American’s attitude towards …

In the run-up to the third anniversary of the Bahraini uprising on February 14, 2011, mass protests with tens of thousands of participants again engulfed the small kingdom. At the same time, a number of contacts between the opposition and the royal family sparked hopes of renewed high-level negotiations leading to the resolution of the long-standing conflict.   A January …