West Asia Round-Up: October 2019

Abstract Arab Spring 2.0 is in full view. The Middle East continued to reverberate with protests and demonstrations against regimes in several countries leading to the exit or resignations of the leaders in Lebanon and Iraq in the same vein as

Narendra Modi’s visit to Saudi Arabia

On 28 and 29 October 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit to Saudi Arabia and met with King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud and the crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman. The Indian Prime Minister also met with Saudi Environment, Water and

Iraq Protests and the Problem of Ethno-Sectarian Balancing

Iraq has been witnessing widespread protests that began in Baghdad on 1 October 2019 and spread throughout the state to express frustration about the deteriorating economic situation, corruption, unemployment, poverty, poor quality of services etc. T

West Asia Round Up: September, 2019

Abstract The Persian Gulf Crisis The Middle East continued to worry the world especially in the wake of drone attacks on the two Saudi oil facilities that reduced the Saudi oil output by almost half. It displayed the vulnerability of crucial Sa

West Asia Monthly Round-Up: August 2019

Abstract West Asia continues to be fraught with uncertainty and mixed diplomatic discourse. On the one hand US-Iran spat continues but showed the signs of fissure in the so called “Alliance of the Willing” as UK released the detained Iranian

Narendra Modi’s visit to UAE and Bahrain

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 23-24 August 2019 and Bahrain on 24-25 August 2019. The visit by the Indian Prime Minister marks the first visit to the UAE and the West Asian region after coming back to p

Constitutional Amendment - Responses from West Asia

Responses of individual West Asian States on India’s decision to annul to revoke Article 370 and Article 35A has been multi-faceted and mostly focused on controlling the situation rather than any direct criticism for change in India’s policy. Sau

West Asia Review – July 2019

Abstract The US-Iran spat continued despite some signs of a thaw and a possible dialogue since both sides continued with sabre rattling and mutual recriminations. Meanwhile the mutual detention of the cargo ships by Iran and the UK in the Gulf a

Linking the Events from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Strait of Hormuz

On 4 July 2019, the United Kingdom’s Royal Marines seized an Iranian oil tanker, Grace I in the Strait of Gibraltar on the charges that Iran was breaching the European Union’s (EU) sanctions by supplying 2 million barrel of oil to a Syrian govern

US Policy and India’s Energy Needs

The United States of America has decided to roll back the waivers on its sanctions on entities or countries engaged in oil trade with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The waivers known as Significant Reduction Exemption (SRE) expired on 2 May 2019. Non

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