Mainstream Weekly

Syria: What Needs To Be Done

Bashir Mohammad — 2012-10-02T18:56:42Z

The international scenario continues to be dominated by the serious situation in Syria where the West (read the US) has been planning an intervention for long with help from strange bedfellows (from the Al-Qaeda to Israel) even though that has not yet materialised. The twin blasts that struck the heavily guarded head-quarters of the Syrian Army in the heart of the country's capital, Damascus, on September 26 have given a new dimension to the efforts to dislodge Bashar Al-Assad—these are (…)

- 2012

Which Way, Dushanbe?

Bashir Mohammad — 2012-02-14T17:43:23Z

Central Asia has for quite sometime now become the arena for a new Great Game involving Russia, the US and China. Such players like India close to the region as well as neighbouring Pakistan and Iran frequently fail to keep pace with the fast changing manoeuvres of the main protagonists that leave considerable impact on the regional capitals.
Let's take the case of the Ayni air base in Tajikistan. New Delhi has invested a lot of money and expertise in modernising this military facility (…)

- 2012

Afghanistan: US Strategy in Conflict with Indian Interests

Bashir Mohammad — 2011-11-27T11:43:17Z

Indian interests in Afghanistan and the region as a whole do not find importance in the US strategy in this part of the world. As a matter of fact the strategy not only ignores but also does not conform to those interests. For all its pronouncements to the contrary, the essential objective of the Obama Administration in Washington is to strike a deal with the ISI and its strategic assets, the Taliban and Haqqani network.
The New Silk Route concept disclosed by the US Secretary of State in (…)

- 2011

Obama's New Afghan Strategy with Pakistan to Induct the Taliban in Kabul

Bashir Mohammad — 2011-10-08T19:00:10Z

DESPITE LATEST STRAINS IN US-PAK RELATIONS IN AFGHANISTAN
The strategy devised at the London Conference on Afghanistan (held in January 2010)—“reinte-gration and reconciliation”—was a veiled scheme of once again handing over Afghanistan to Pakistan. President Obama's rhetoric on the “Way For-ward in Af-Pak” has the same thrust.
The consequences of this dangerous scheme are not difficult to fathom. These are as follows:
(i) the resumption of civil war sucking in the neighbouring (…)

- 2011

Afghanistan: NATO Defeat and New US Game-Plan

Bashir Mohammad — 2011-09-13T18:05:12Z

The political situation in Afghanistan is continually worsening. The Afghan Army and coalition forces have been rebuffed in their efforts to bring the country's southern and eastern provinces under their control. On the contrary, the Taliban have lately once again established their presence in all the areas from where they had been uprooted due to the operations of the coalition forces since 2001.
A majority of the Pushtun population sympathise with and back the Taliban fighting foreign (…)

- 2011

On Indian Participation in a Refinery Project in Georgia

Bashir Mohammad — 2011-05-24T16:23:28Z

India is learnt to be seriously considering whether or not to join an oil refinery project in Georgia, one of the former Soviet republics now an independent state; it has presently been turned into the closest ally of the US in the region headed as it is by a figure who is in effect an American national (a bizarre deve-lopment!) and consistently subserving Washington's interests, and his stewardship of the country has resulted in disastrous consequences for Georgia.
Any step from the side (…)

- 2011

Let's Not Forget US' Grand Design

Bashir Mohammad — 2011-05-14T17:16:03Z

The US efforts to bridle and tame the Arab revolutionary wave in the Middle East seems to be bearing fruit. After Washington's failure to defend and rescue its staunchest ally in the region, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, who acted as the most effective US satellite in West Asia, it has manged to contain the open revolt in Bahrain and prevent potential uprisings springing from simmering discontent in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman. By late February the Obama Administration was able to put in place (…)

- 2011

WikiLeaks, US, Pakistan, Afghanistan

Bashir Mohammad — 2010-12-12T18:36:45Z

As the arrested founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange in a signed article in The Australian, titled “Don't shoot the messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths”, on December 8 called for the “need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth”, there appears to be a fierce competition between two major figures in the “Free World”—US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Republican Sarah Palin (who contested the last 2008 US poll for the post of Vice-President)—in attacking Assange (…)

- 2010

Afghanistan: CIA's 'Army of Assassins'

Bashir Mohammad — 2010-10-19T10:57:19Z

The CIA is funding the operation of a secret 3000-strong Afghan paramilitary army whose principal objective is to assassinate the Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives not just in Afghanistan but also in adjoining Pakistan's tribal areas across the border. This has been brought out in sharp relief in Bob Woodward's recently published absorbing but sensational book, Obama's Wars. This operation bears striking resemblance with the covert assassination drive against the Al-Qaeda in Iraq; this helped (…)

- 2010

US Bid To Make Way For Taliban's Induction In Kabul: Compounding Earlier Follies

Bashir Mohammad — 2010-07-10T07:46:22Z

The strategy devised at the London Conference on Afghanistan last January—“reintegration and reconciliation”—is a veiled scheme to once again hand over Afghanistan to Pakistan through the vehicle of the Taliban (whose acceptability is being sought to be ensured by the use of such an adjective as “moderate” which in reality is hollow, senseless and bereft of any meaning). US President Barack Obama's rhetoric on the “Way Forward in Af-Pak” has the same thrust.
The consequences of this (…)

- 2010