Daily Archives: November 28, 2015

Emerging regional scenario | Arab News

November 28, 2015 By in Defense Policy, Foreign Policy, People Tags: , , , Leave a comment
Coat of Arms of Saudi Arabia

Coat of Arms of Saudi Arabia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This interesting article by Saudi owned Arab News tries to address the question, ‘How did the Syrian crisis evolve from a civil war to a regional conflict and, now, to an international conflict between Russia and NATO?’

Source: Emerging regional scenario | Arab News

Whilst I found some of the arguments interesting, I am amazed that the article did not mention ISIS once. Also the article seems to blame Iran for making policy errors.

What is clear is that America’s traditional allies, Saudi Arabia and the the Gulf countries are cooling towards America. Meanwhile, Russia is making new friends.

Of course, all of this is happening on President Obama’s watch.

Thoughts?

Putin orders economic sanctions against Turkey over downing of jet | News | DW.COM | 28.11.2015

November 28, 2015 By in Business Administration, Defense Policy, Foreign Policy, People, Politics Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

According to German news agency DW, Vladimir Putin has approved a raft of economic sanctions against Turkey in retaliation for the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkish forces. It reports that the move came after Turkey’s Erdogan expressed regret over the incident.

Source: Putin orders economic sanctions against Turkey over downing of jet | News | DW.COM | 28.11.2015

One can picture Erdogan trying to call Putin, and Putin saying ‘let him sweat until he’s ready to apologize and admit error on the part of Turkey’. Erdogan will be trying to pull all sorts of levers to no avail. BUT Erdogan also needs to be careful not to escalate matters further.

Thoughts?