Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Turkey The gloomy portrait of the Middle East today should not obscure that peace is achievable. The basic premise for any such peace must be to preserve the territorial integrity of states. This means countering all forces that exist only to pursue their dystopias at the expense of others […]
Syria: Trump folly, Turkish reminder, and how it connects with Central Asia
Tariq Saeedi Against all wisdom and commonsense, Trump has turned around and started partnering with terrorists in Syria. This is certainly bad for Syria but it would also be catastrophic for many parts of the world including Central Asia. And, USA under Trump would definitely be among the losers. * * * Trump is acting […]
Kazakhstan – Highlighting Central Asia on World Stage
Kazakhstan has always followed a balanced policy that highlights the Central Asian region in a positive light on the world stage. An ongoing tenure and a recently concluded event are the case in point. — President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan met President Trump of USA on 16 January 2018, and Kazakhstan is the current chair of […]
Pak-US Relations at A Tipping Point
General Mirza Aslam Beg, Former COAS Pakistan — friendscolumn@hotmail.com “Trump is a man-baby, a failed businessman who lurches from tantrum to tweet storm and back again, who shows no impulse control, who won’t take responsibility for his actions, and who whines – a lot – when things don’t go his way.” —— Susan Campbell – American […]
ISIS – Part 2
Tariq Saeedi The old hunters are back with new traps — an eastern proverb * * * In the first part of this series, (published in our subscription-based publication on 12 June 2017) I quoted some verses from the Quran to point out that: 1. It is not God’s will to eliminate all the religions […]
ISIS – Part 1
Editor’s note: Initially, I planned to write a short series to expose the fallacies in the narrative of ISIS (also called ID, Daesh) to throw the light on the nature of the organization that claims to be rooted in Islam but is doing everything imaginable to harm Islam and Muslims. This first part was initially […]
Helping Uncle Sam fade away peacefully – Part 1
Tariq Saeedi 26 September 2017 (nCa) — What could have taken at least half a century would likely be achieved in a couple of decades —– Trump is deftly putting the United States of America on fast track to early retirement. Here are some of the admirably imaginative things he has done since coming to […]
آج کی خبر
جنرل مرزا اسلم بیگ سابق چیف آف آرمی سٹاف پاکستان Email: friendscolumn@hotmail.com آج کے ایک اردو اخبار کی مندجہ ذیل خبر آپ کے پیش نظر ہے جس کی افادیت14 اپریل 2017ء کو ماسکو میں ہونے والی بارہ ملکی کانفرنس میں ثابت ہوگی اور ہمارا موقف درست ثابت ہوگا کہ طالبان ہی وہ واحدقوت ہیں جو […]
Unraveling of TPP augers well for Central Asia
Tariq Saeedi Ashgabat, 25 January 2017 (nCa) — Trump has kept his promise — TPP is adrift. The TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership), more than eight years in the making, was undone by just one signature this week. It was designed to be a trade agreement between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, […]
Rumour-mill and Putin
Tariq Saeedi Ashgabat, 8 December 2016 (nCa) — Brandolini’s law: ‘The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.’ This is attributed to Alberto Brandolini, an Italian independent software development consultant and that is why it is called Brandolini’s Law though Alberto himself prefers to call […]