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The excitement of the Board of Governor's meeting is over and the participants have not been slow to express their views at the outcome. The Iranians are defiant, the Americans triumphant, the Russians cautious, the Europeans smug, the Chinese inscrutable, the Arabs joyous at directing a new argument at Israel, the latter pleased over Iran's predicament yet angry over a dent in their nuclear ambiguity, and the Indians self-righteous.

Israel believes that the use of force is essential to stopping Iran from making the nuclear bomb. A vocal section of the strategic affairs community in the United States agrees with the proposition. This brief argues that military means are unlikely to sabotage the nuclear weapons programme of an advanced-stage bomb-seeker like Iran. Moreover, use of force could be counterproductive as it can incentivise Iran’s pursuit of the bomb, and it may e

Iran’s oil sales are at a five-year high as the US looks the other way despite sanctions. Iran is smartly undercutting Russia in selling cheaper oil and upset Saudi Arabia’s plan to profiteer from production cuts. The new world order being shaped amid the US-China battle for global supremacy equally belongs to countries charting independent paths

India’s relations with West Asia is among the country’s successes in foreign policy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. One country conspicuous in its sub-par engagement with India, however, is Iran. This brief makes a case for a reset in Iran-India relations under Iran’s newly elected president and PM Modi’s third term. It examines the options and opportunities available to the two countries, and explores the recent changes in the region

The Narendra Modi government has shown signs that it doesn’t mean to let Trump’s stance on Iran derail the oil trade with it

Iranians take their soccer seriously. Iran's victory over Bahrain last week in the World Cup qualifier resulted in an outburst of rejoicing rarely seen in Teheran. Men and women (some without head scarves) danced on the streets and tore up posters of candidates in the June 17 presidential elections. The police did not interfere. Credible foreign observers have not confirmed reports of police brutality carried by some opposition news channels in t

While India would be hoping that the reported secret talks between the US and Iran succeeds, avoiding a conflict, New Delhi could take a leaf out of the Chinese and Japanese strategy of reducing its exposure to Iranian oil in return for a waiver from US sanctions.

Time is running out for the Joe Biden administration, but there is an opportunity for Brussels to take a lead role

While the supreme leader is there for life (or till he chooses to retire), the president is limited to two four-year terms, defining where the balance of power rests between them

While the Trump administration is in no mood to relent on its decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, for India, the challenge is to preserve its own equities in Iran and the wider West Asian region.

Despite the sanctions, Iran has continued to act as a regional power with huge influence over the internal affairs of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen. That's what threatens Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf kingdoms, and America's rapproachment with Iran is the beginning of a tectonic shift in the regional balance of power.

The Trump administration’s attempts to create another West Asia crisis should worry India.

India has significant interests in the Persian Gulf region, but it appears to have dealt itself out of the game by tamely skewing its Middle East policy in favour of the informal US-Saudi Arabia-Israel coalition. Iran was given short shrift as New Delhi went along with Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ policy on Iran. New Delhi’s motives may have been practical.

Iran’s leadership crisis may have come at an important time for the US, amid an ongoing political slugfest at home in an election cycle and a litmus test for US relations with Israel.

The debate about Iran's quest for nuclear energy is wholly enmeshed in the politics of US-Iran relationship. Iran is a signatory to the NPT and its additional protocol. It has obligations; it has rights. The focus of the west is on obligations, of Iran on rights. The North-South divide is reflected in the board of governors of the IAEA, with Russia and China supportive of the non-aligned who apprehend, as Washington Post put it,

Though the decision itself may not have been surprising, the consequences could be serious for New Delhi’s security.

Strikingly similar to the crisis that Iran faced at the IAEA Board meeting in Vienna last weekend, India too found itself in a tight spot in April 1994 at the United Nations Human Rights Commission's annual session in Geneva.

With his killing, the US has entered an area of unknowns. Iran cannot be underestimated

Potential security engagements among the three have spotlighted their increasing convergence.

For Trump, any amplified war with Iran will stand against his promises of not dragging the US into wars in faraway lands.

The opening of Iran will alter the geopolitics of south-western Asia. Even so, India needs to tread with care. But this should not in any way constrain our initiatives with Iran. We need to move beyond the phase of dithering that has characterised our ties with Tehran for the last decade.

The development of the Chabahar port needs to be viewed as Iran’s call for “engagement”.

The US may have lost interest in Iraq, but in Syria if it truly desires a diplomatic solution, then Iran has to be brought on board. This is what even the French are telling them. But will the US take the extended hand.

International tension surrounding Iran is yet to affect India, but New Delhi can make tactical gains by maintaining diplomatic flexibility.

New Delhi (and Beijing) have limited leverage over regional matters in West Asia.

Tehran has responded in a carefully structured, calibrated fashion to the resolution passed by the IAEA Board of Governors last Saturday regarding Iran's nuclear programme. We may not have heard the last word yet, but are quite close to it.

त्यांच्या तिसऱ्या कार्यकाळात, त्यांनी नॉर्वे आणि स्वित्झर्लंड यांच्यासारख्या देशांप्रमाणेच, शांतता प्रस्थापनेसाठी आक्रमक दृष्टीकोन स्वीकारावा. यामुळे भारताला त्या�

अलीकडे इस्रायलवर झालेल्या धक्कादायक दहशतवादी हल्ल्याचे परिणाम आता उलगडून लागले आहेत. हा हल्ला हराकाह अल-मुकावामाह अल-इस्लामिया किंवा हमास ने केला आहे.

New Delhi, Tehran and Moscow could coordinate their efforts on Afghanistan as the US exits

Pakistan has no option but to respond to public outrage. Blocking of the two NATO supply routes to Afghanistan and denying the use of a Baloch airfield to the CIA is actually a low risk retaliation when Iran, Hezbullah, Syria are much more in the eye of a huge, global storm.

French president Emmanuel Macron tried to manage the contradictions, but nothing of substance was achieved in Biarritz.

After the scheduled western forces drawdown from Afghanistan in 2014, one viable option that would assist Afghan economic development is the US-driven New Silk Road Strategy. But, China, Russia, and Iran have specific visions of a viable NSRS, and these do not necessarily sit well with the US strategy.

The US is entering its trickiest phase in the Af-Pak region, where elections are due in both, Pakistan and Afghanistan just around the time Washington has set for its troops to depart. Can troops depart without an overt or covert understanding with Iran which has a long border with Afghanistan?

In recent years, a number of states have begun integrating their armed drones into collaborative drone swarms. Although global proliferation can be anticipated, drone swarm proliferation should not be expected to be even or immediate. Some states may race to develop massive, armed drone swarms, while others may never develop sophisticated drone swarm capabilities. This brief explores why some states pursue drone swarms, why others may not, and th

Iran is being treated more like North Korea, even though it is one of the world's great civilisations, with major historical and scientific achievements. And, as anyone who has deeply analysed the personalities of Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong Un knows, they don't look like one another. Or like one another.

Bashar al-Assad’s ouster and South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol's retreat underscore the importance of channelling people power through effective institutional frameworks

Dr.A. Q. Khan, the self-styled father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, is back in the headlines following a statement disseminated by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a group opposed to the present regime in Teheran, on November 17, 2004, that between 1994 and 1996 (Mrs.Benazir Bhutto was then in power) Dr. Khan gave Iran a Chinese-developed nuclear warhead design.

Why India and Iran had modest expectations of President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to New Delhi this month

Counter-terror narratives are backsliding, and this trend needs to be arrested as a compromise with a section of these groups becomes an acceptable way out.

As the Biden administration grapples with the intricate interplay of domestic pressures and international obligations, particularly in the midst of an election year, there is a palpable sense of urgency to confront a myriad of challenges.

Regimes sympathic to the Palestinian plight would, to that extent, be insulted from peoples' wrath in Syria and Libya, for instance. Demonstrations in Iran and Libya are part of the internal turmoil in these countries, unrelated to the Palestinian issue.

China has good relations with most of Afghanistan's neighbours, including Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. But it is Beijing's emerging partnership with the Pakistan army in Afghanistan that is the most interesting new element in the region.