Multi-billion dollar Indian conglomerate Essar Group will seek to work around Western sanctions to broker an oil-for-steel deal with Iran. India is currently one of the National Iranian Oil Company’s largest clients, while Iran continues to purchase significant quantities of Indian steel in spite of comprehensive sanctions that complicate transacting business with NIOC or other…
Kazakhstan and Afghanistan are participating in active discussions to enter the World Trade Organization, said Director General Roberto Azevedo. The accession negotiations of Kazakhstan in particular are now “at an advanced stage of maturity and on the threshold of conclusion,” according to Azevedo’s statement. The expected date of matriculation will be early next year. Afghanistan…
Under pressure from Western nations concerned with the status of reform projects, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will soon move to form a new government, the first such initiative since the former chocolate magnate took office in October. The delays in forming a government have led to poor delegation of humanitarian and military aid originating in…
Russian President Vladimir Putin is assuring the world that he does not want to run the Russian state for life, but is openly considering running for another six-year term in 2018, according to a new interview with ITAR-TASS. The interview, while never asking direct and hard-hitting questions, does touch on the political cult that has…
Today marked the deadline for P5+1 and Iranian negotiators to come to terms on an agreement concerning the Iranian nuclear program. The probability that a “permanent” agreement would be reached in accordance with the deadline was virtually zero as Iranian negotiators had previously declared a deal before November 24 “impossible” and Western negotiators had already begun to…
With the deadline for the Iranian nuclear deal approaching on Monday, negotiators are scrambling to keep up the pressure on the regime to accede to concessions now rather than parley for another extension. US Secretary of State John Kerry insisted that negotiators push for a deal by Monday and to refuse talks of yet another…
Italian oil major Eni finalized a deal with Turkmenistan that will allow the energy giant to begin exploration in the Turkmen offshore reserve known as Nebit Dag. Turkmen officials had long been in talks with Eni officials, though the deal was ultimately ratified after a visit between Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Turkmen President…
The intelligence agency of Kazakhstan has provided an estimate for how many Kazakh nationals are fighting with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and apparently, half of them are women. Nurtai Abykayev, chairman of the Kazakh National Security Committee (NSC), reported that a new fighting unit or “jamaat” was created by these nationals. These…
The European Union ratcheted up asset seizures, travel bans and financial freezes on funds belonging to Russian officials and pro-Russia separatists, as well as organizations in their favor, though stopped short of sanctioning Russia, their chief patron. The fact that the European Union balked at levying more restrictions on the Russian economy is expected and…
On Saturday, Afghan president Ashraf Ghani and Pakistani president Nawaz Sharif met for a conference in Islamabad, marking a rekindling of relations between the two adversarial countries. Sharif pledged that he would support President Ghani to bring peace to Afghanistan. Former President Hamid Karzai notoriously blamed Pakistani policy and leaders for the entirety of Afghanistan’s…
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