Strategic Council Online-Opinion: Having considered the trend of current developments in Afghanistan, it seems that the country is witnessing an intra-Taliban bloody settlement of account from Eastern and Southern regions.
Mohsen Rouhi Sefat, former diplomat and analyst of International affairs
Strategic Council Online – Interview: A university professor, saying that if the Taliban do not fulfill their commitments, they should not expect other players to cooperate in different fields, stressed: At the Moscow meeting, efforts should be made to move the negotiations in a direction where the United States and the Taliban undertake commitments that are difficult to be ignored.
Strategic Council Online – Opinion: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin met on September 29 in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Russia. Of course, the short duration of the meeting compared to the long meetings in the past has attracted the attention of analysts who have assessed the event as being related to the escalation of differences between the two sides on some issues. Erdogan and Putin have met 26 times in person since the war in November 2015, when a Russian fighter plane was shot down by Turkey. The last meeting of the leaders of the two countries was held on March 5, 2020 in Moscow.
Mahmoud Fazeli – International affairs analyst
Strategic Council Online- Interview: Having stressed the necessity of continuous counselling among neighboring countries of Afghanistan to sort out the country’s crisis, a university professor said:” If the present situation continues in the country, some of the regional or trans-regional countries may compete with each other to set up groups in order to support them and take concessions from Taliban or direct Afghanistan towards an internal war.
Strategic Council Online – An analyst of Asia affairs said that the recent decision of the new US administration to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan is a win-win situation for Islamabad, adding that Pakistan views this issue politically and strategically against India and seeks to regain its strategic depth with an economic approach to Afghan markets as well as improving its relations with the United States.
Strategic Council Online-Opinion: Joe Biden will have no choice but to remove Ansarullah from the American list of terrorist groups in order to participate in the peace talks with Saudi Arabia in future.
Hassan Hanizadeh-Middle East expert
Strategy Council Online – A Middle East expert said: “Some speculations suggest that with the rise of Joe Biden in the United States, we may see an acceleration of the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and some other countries in the region.”
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: It has been reported that Mossad terrorists have assassinated more than 500 Muslim and Arab nuclear scientists and elite scholars in the past decades in view of the absolute silence of the authorities of the Zionist regime.
Hassan Hanizdeh, expert of Middle East issues
Strategic Council Online – As ISIS targets the Afghan capital with numerous missile strikes, this idea has been bolstered that it could pave the way for a continued US presence in Afghanistan and given that ISIS terrorist attacks are in line with the targets of the White House to perpetuate violence in Afghanistan and manage it, planning of those attacks has been attributed to Washington.
Mohammad Reza Asgari Moroudi – senior expert on Asia affairs
Strategic Council Online – A university professor said that Turkey’s sphere of influence and territorialization in Libya is approaching the strategic depth and the first influence of Egypt, and in some cases they overlap. He added that at the beginning outbreak of clashes between Egypt and Turkey exists on the battlefield, but after a while when the two sides reach a balance in interests and the war turns into one of attrition they will go for negotiations.
Strategic Council Online: A university professor said there was no consensus on maintaining a long-term ceasefire in Idlib, noting that sooner or later this fragile ceasefire would collapse because Turkey has realized Bashar Assad will stay in power and therefore Ankara will need a bargaining chip to protect its interests.
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: Referring to a UN official’s warning against strengthening of terrorists’ positions and efforts to revive ISIS, a West Asian affairs expert said given that Idlib is the last hope for the terrorists and their overseas supporters, the possibility of boosting these terrorist groups exists and therefore the Idlib war will be very difficult to fight.
