The Iran-Azerbaijan gas swap deal: Did Tehran’s tough posturing pay off?

14 Dec 202114 Dec 2021

Posted originally to The Cradle on 14 December 2021. The deal ended the October-November escalation between Iran and Azerbaijan, which has featured unprecedented Iranian war games on their shared borders…

Will geoeconomics carry Saudi-Israeli relations into the future?

11 Nov 202114 Dec 2021

Posted originally to The Cradle on 11 November 2021. Saudi-Israeli relations presently stand in sharp contrast to the full normalization Israel achieved with the UAE via the August 2020 Abraham…

From Panjshir to Baku: Iran’s search for a new hard-power Strategy in Eurasia

3 Nov 202111 Nov 2021

Posted originally to The Cradle on 3 November 2021. Iran’s recent reactions to events in Afghanistan’s northern reaches and the Iran- Armenia-Azerbaijan border area were sudden and dramatic. Viewed in…

Will there be a China-driven evolution in Israel’s strategy toward Iran?

20 Jul 202114 Sep 2021

Posted originally to the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) on 19 July 2021. This author published an analysis in The Tehran Times in December 2020 titled “Is Eurasian integration Israel’s…

Yemen’s Houthis and the ‘Iran versus Saudi Arabia’ false binary

3 Jun 202019 Jun 2021

Posted originally to Strafasia on 2 June 2020. Notably in Pakistan, the notion of a regional ‘Iran versus Saudi Arabia’ struggle for influence is a popular framework adhered to by…