Strategic Council Online: At present, there are three currents in Afghanistan claiming power: Abdullah Abdullah and the Jihadists, the Liberal Democrats represented by Ashraf Ghani, and the Taliban. Zalmay Khalilzad seems to be trying to balance these three currents in order to overcome the crisis in Afghanistan.
Pir Mohammad Molazehi – Expert on Afghanistan
Strategic Council Online: A West Asian affairs expert said US opposition to a UN Security Council statement in support of the recent ceasefire agreement between Turkey and Russia was over fears that Russia will hold the upper hand in the talks. He added that the agreement reached in the talks on Idlib was in the interest of the government of Bashar Assad.
Strategic Council Online: Former Iranian ambassador to Romania and Hungary says Emmanuel Macron intends to reduce or take over the US role in the West Asian region. “Whether France is powerful enough to accomplish this task or whether it has the tools to do so will be decided in the future,” he said.
Strategic Council Online: The Ankara government has again resorted to the traditional policy of using the leverage of immigrants and refugees to drag Europe into the war in Idlib; but this policy failed to draw support from European countries for Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Ankara government, but unlike previous times that they had pledged a series of donations, this time fully condemned Turkey’s “blackmail.”
Shoaib Bahman: International Affairs Expert
Strategic Council Online: A professor of international relations, explaining the reasons for Europe’s and America’s disagreement over the “West’s decline”, said Europe believes Britain’s departure from the EU would add to the transatlantic burden, undermining Europe’s role. They are worried that the United States and Britain will abandon Europe more than before, so what the Europeans see as the decline of the West is not so irrational.
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 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: 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: 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 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: An expert on international security affairs pointing to a joint naval exercise between Iran, Russia, and China in the north of the Indian Ocean and the Oman Sea said: This combination could upset the power equation in the region and, before anything, weaken the American unilateralist axis and strengthen the multilateral camp in the region.
Strategic Council Online: An international affairs analyst said that if the US pullout from international institutions and agreements continues, it could weaken these accords. “If Trump’s withdrawal from these accords had a tangible achievement for Americans and if this could change America’s relative advantage compared to certain countries, such as China and Russia, the policy is likely to find supporters among other countries and even the Democrats prompting them to continue this trend.”
Strategic Council Online: On February 2, 2019, the United States citing a withdrawal clause, announced that it will withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in six months. The deadline expired on August 2, and Washington by pulling out of the treaty caused its collapse.
Dr. Ali Karbalaei Hosseini – International Law Researcher
Strategic Council Online: Turkey, by purchasing S400 missile system, is trying to critically remind the United States of its excessive delay in delivering the Patriot system to Ankara on the one hand, and intends to demonstrate its independence in military decision-making beyond what the US and NATO determine, on the other hand.
Siamak Kakaie – Turkish Affairs expert
