The Trump administration on Monday imposed sanctions on 271 employees of the Syrian government agency it said was responsible for producing chemical weapons and ballistic missiles, an effort to impose a sweeping punishment after a sarin attack on civilians this month. The sanctions on members of President Bashar al-Assad’s Scientific...
The country boosted its military spending to $69.2 billion in 2016, according to a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The 5.9% increase landed Russia behind only the United States and China in the ranking of top spenders. Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled plans in 2011...
Furious Vladimir Putin has called the US airstrikes on Syria an ‘illegal act of aggression’ and suspended a deal to avoid mid-air clashes with American fighter jets over the war-torn country. The Russian President warned of grave damage to relations between Washington and Moscow after 60 Tomahawk missiles were fired...
The United States had fired nearly 60 Tomahawk missiles at a military airfield in Syria, the first direct military action Washington has taken against Syrian government forces in the six-year-old conflict. The US said the missiles on Friday severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment at...
By Dan Lamothe, Missy Ryan and Thomas Gibbons-Neff The U.S. military launched 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian military airfield late on Thursday, in the first direct American assault on the government of President Bashar al-Assad since that country’s civil war began six years ago. The operation, which the Trump...
Pakistan Day (March 23) this year has a special significance, as we celebrate both the 70th year of diplomatic relations as well as a continuously growing strategic relationship between Pakistan and Turkey. Having a glorious past, these abiding fraternal ties have an equally promising future. Indeed, the Pakistan-Turkey partnership is...
A 90-member delegation from the People’s Liberation Army of China took part in Pakistan’s annual Republic Day events Thursday not just as a routine diplomatic gesture. The PLA honor guard contingent marked China’s first participation in the Middle Eastern country’s landmark political holiday. It showed the world how close the two...
India has refused to allow the Human Rights Commission of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to visit the Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) over fear of massive violations of human rights being exposed. Pakistan, however, has given such permission to the eight-member commission which would arrive in Islamabad on...
Pakistani and Indian experts on Monday opened round-table talks in Islamabad over water disputes between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, even as tensions over competing claims to Kashmir remain high. Pakistan’s minister for water and power, Khawaja Asif, welcomed the Indian delegation for the two-day talks, saying he hoped the discussions...
By Adrian Raftery There are numerous interpretations of the rationale behind China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative. At one end, OBOR is an economic instrument to vent surplus domestic industrial overcapacity and shift heavy-polluting industry inland; an energy security project to alleviate China’s dependency on the Malacca Strait as its primary corridor...