Vivekananda International Foundation | Seeking Harmony in Diversity

Israel

On July 2, some explosions at the nuclear component facility at Natanz in Iran appear to have damaged the crucial centrifuges delaying its programme by at least two years as per Iranian officials. Earlier, there was yet another blast said to be at...

July 16 , 2020

Mapping Israeli Sovereignty, Jewish Settlements, and a Future Palestinian State

July 1 has come and gone, and despite the hysteria in some circles, the world did not wake up this past Wednesday to find that Israel had become sovereign over large parts of Palestinian land. So what was all the hoopla about, and what lies ahead?...

July 8 , 2020

Refugees, not Settlements, are the Bigger Impediment to Israeli-Palestinian Peace

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent comments that his new government, with support from the Trump Administration in the US will annex parts of the West Bank have, as expected, caused quite a flutter in the international community....

June 24 , 2020

West Asia Roundup - May 2020

Abstract: West Asia continued to suffer under the onslaught of Covid -19. While Iran despite its socio-economic problems and US sanctions remained the major victim in the region others caught up rather fast. Some took early containment actions while...

June 6 , 2020

COVID-19 International Developments: Daily Scan, May 27, 2020

Medical China Rules Out Animal Market and Lab as Coronavirus Origin Chinese scientists in recent days said they had ruled out both a laboratory and an animal market in the city of Wuhan as possible origins of the coronavirus pandemic, in their most...

May 27 , 2020

The West Bank Jitters

Last week in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intent of formally annexing some parts of the disputed West Bank to their territory , King Abdullah II of Jordan warned the Israelis and the World especially the US that it will...

May 21 , 2020

West Asia Roundup– February 2020

Abstract: US-Taliban After a weeklong trial halt in violence by Taliban against US or Afghan targets the Peace Agreement was signed between US and Taliban in Doha that seeks to end the 19 years old war and presence of US forces in Afghanistan and...

March 11 , 2020

Pegasus— A Powerful Tool of WhatsApp Surveillance

The Facebook’s subsidiary company—WhatsApp, on 29 October 2019, filed a lawsuit in the United States California’s Northern District Federal Court against Israel-based cyber-arms1 firm— the NSO Group, for infecting ‘specific’ group of WhatsApp users...

February 5 , 2020

Brainstorming Session on ‘India and West Asia – a New Paradigm Shift and Policy Options’

The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) organised a Brainstorming Session on ‘India and West Asia – a New Paradigm Shift and Policy Options’. The deliberations broadly focussed on assessing the present situation in the West Asian Region...

July 30 , 2019

Commentary: President Trump and Jerusalem

President Trump’s decision announced on 6th December 2017 to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to order the transfer of US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem reminds one of the 1917 Balfour Declaration that paved the way for the...

January 4 , 2018