Strategic Council Online: A faculty member of the Shahid Beheshti University outlining the most important issues at the Munich Security Conference described the current state of world security as extremely shaky and noted that the Conference could not accomplish any important results.
Strategic Council Online: A university professor referred to the sharpening of differences between the United States and Britain over the latter’s cooperation with the Chinese Huawei company, saying that the British appear to have included multilateralism and expansion of members in their foreign relations portfolio.
Strategic Council Online: A West Asia affairs expert said the reading of Russia, Iran and Syria of the Sochi deal appear to be different from what Turkey thinks of the deal. Mr Erdogan is making his own personal interpretation of the Sochi deal, which is tantamount to turning the negotiating table upside down and disturb the rules of the game.
Strategic Council Online: A European affairs analyst said that Brexit will leave fundamental impacts on balance of power in European institutions, adding that Britain’s departure from EU as one of the two major military powers with abundant intelligence capabilities, a soft power and a widespread diplomatic network in the farthest parts of the world will weaken and reduce the impact of EU foreign policy.
Strategic Council Online: An expert on geopolitics has said France has failed to adopt appropriate policies on counterterrorism, saying that while Europe’s top concern has been terrorist acts over less than a decade, Mr Macron thinks we are still in the Cold War era and gives the first priority to developing nuclear weapons and to boast them against Russia.
Strategic Council Online: Leaving the European Union is not easy and for long years London will be facing complex negotiations ahead. Britain will lose the benefits it has had in agreements with the European Union and EU partners.
Abed Akbari – European Affairs Expert
Strategic Council Online: German leaders have decided to spend part of their military budget to deploy military forces to bolster the defense of Germany and Europe, as the best defence for countries is to move their strongholds overseas. That is to say, if a country wants to defend itself, it must also be a military activist in its periphery.
Abdolreza Farajirad – University Professor in Geopolitics
Strategic Council Online: A Middle East analyst brought up the importance of Syrian army’s success in liberating Ma’arat al-Numan, Khan Tuman and areas of Idlib, saying the most difficult operation is Operation Idlib because it seems that there is a serious disagreement on military operations of Syria and Russia with Turkey in this region and the two sides have different strategies.
Strategic Council Online: Erdogan is trying to get closer to achieving some of his European goals by using the refugee card, which today is the Achilles’ Heel of EU countries, including Germany.
Abed Akbari – European Affairs Expert
Strategic Council Online: An international affairs analyst said tensions have been exacerbated in the Mediterranean due to efforts of Turkey, Greece and Cyprus to conduct gas exploration and drilling operations in the region. “Europe is well aware that implementation of certain decisions against Turkey could throw hurdles in the way of gas transfer from the East Mediterranean to Europe,” he said.
Strategic Council Online: Former Iranian ambassador to Romania and Hungary, stressing that Europe’s alleged commitment to the Iran Nuclear Agreement (known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) must be accompanied by tangible results, said: Unfortunately, to date we have seen no positive move, other than speech therapy, from the EU in preserving the JCPOA.
Strategic Council Online: A professor of international relations has said that if Britain’s exit from the European Union occurs on February 1, not only the Brexit story is not over it is just the beginning. He then outlined the most important consequences of Brexit for Britain and the EU.
Strategic Council Online: Despite all the American pressures, Europeans are aware that Russia is their big neighbor and whether the US agrees or disagrees, they are not in a position to overlook their strategic neighbor although on certain occasions it could be a security threat for Europe.
Morteza Makki – European affairs expert
Strategic Council Online: Conservatives victory in the British parliament does not mean the end of the Brexit political crisis for Britain and Johnson, says an expert on European affairs. “Brexit is a win-win case for the United States from two perspectives: On the one hand, the EU as a trade rival will be weakened and on the other hand, Washington could enter into bilateral agreements with the United Kingdom which would have more benefits for the US.
Strategic Council Online: An expert on Turkish issues has called Ankara’s policies toward Syria “ambitious” and said that under the current conditions Turkey faces challenges in the field of terrorism, the Syrian refugee crisis and the Kurdish separatism near its border that may face its internal security with a challenge.
Strategic Council Online: An international affairs expert stressed: Although the final statement of the NATO summit attempted to highlight Russian “threat” and revive some type of Cold War atmosphere with Russia and to some extent China and portray a show of solidarity around common goals, however the summit and its output could neither persuade international observers nor even the member states themselves.
Strategic Council Online: An expert on European affairs, referring to a quartet summit of Europe and Turkey on Syria on the sidelines of the NATO summit in London, said: Turkey has been seeking a series of political concessions over developments in northern Syria in recent years.
Strategic Council Online: Both the record and the party inclinations of new EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell suggest that he will likely follow Federica Mogherini’s approach on Iran and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Strategic Council Online: A university professor considers France’s stance on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the recent turmoil in Iran as politically motivated and completely biased. He also emphasized that the French Foreign Minister’s warning on using the trigger mechanism and a return to the international sanctions would be a form of evading its commitments.
Strategic Council Online: A British and European affairs researcher says concern over the decline of Britain’s territorial integrity after Brexit is at the forefront of concern of British political elites. He added that Scotland’s possible independence will likely result in a rapid decline of the British pound.
