'On behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran, I express gratitude and appreciation for my dear brothers HE Prime Minister of Pakistan Sharif and HE Field Marshal Munir for their tireless efforts to end the war in the region.'
If one has to compare the tenures of the two prime ministers one must credit Nehru with laying the foundations on which Modi is building a grand edifice, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The logic of war plus the gathering storms in US politics as the midterms loom large leave him with no real alternative but to negotiate, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Nobody takes Pakistan seriously and therefore Pakistan's sudden mediating with almost immediate results of a ceasefire seems more contrived than real, points out Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta (retd).
'As result, Netanyahu 'convinced' Trump to go to war with the help of overoptimistic Israeli intelligence assessments, essentially explaining to him that they only need to bomb Iran for 3-4 days, and the regime would then collapse.' 'Rather unsurprisingly, Netanyahu is ever since blaming his own intel service for the entire operation failing.'
West Asia conflict triggers sharp sell-off in Indian markets, with realty, banking and auto stocks leading losses amid energy shock fears.
Trump may strike. He may announce productive talks and extend again. He may do both at the same time. Iran will not open the Strait on someone else's terms, so no matter what happens, that problem will remain unsolved. And the IRGC will still be collecting its $2 million toll from every ship bold enough to ask permission to pass.
Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the spokesperson for the Pakistan Army, is the son of a nuclear scientist who was sanctioned by the United Nations and the US for providing information and expertise to al-Qaeda, according to Indian officials. Chaudhry's father, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, allegedly provided insights into nuclear weapons infrastructure and raised funds for a fundamentalist organization linked to the Taliban. Mahmood was arrested in 2001 after admitting to meeting Osama bin Laden but was later released.
'I am worried that Pakistan will still feel compelled to take substantive military action beyond this apparent drone activity.' 'If so, the crisis could persist for a while more and dangerous days are still ahead.'
The military establishment is in no mood to forgive or forget Imran's anti-military utterances, observes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RAW, India's external intelligence agency.
Disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist A Q Khan has expressed his willingness to contest elections while suggesting the formation of a government of technocrats because politicians have failed to deliver good governance.
China on Thursday told Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that it will always put its "all-weather ally" as a priority in its neighbourhood diplomacy as it praised his commitment to promote the USD 60 billion CPEC initiative.
Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar, considered a close confidante of army chief Gen Raheel Sharif, was appointed on Monday as the new head of Pakistan's powerful spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence.
Israel's dogged refusal to permit entry of computer communication equipment, which was to have been gifted to a Palestinian university by President Pranab Mukherjee, has introduced an irritant into his landmark visit to the Jeweish state starting on Tuesday.
Against the backdrop of Pakistan's opposition to American drone strikes, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday said the pilotless aircraft should be used only for gathering intelligence.
'This army has lost Pakistan's territory, ideology, financial and intellectual capital, ruined its institutions, democracy, the respect for its passport and, like it or not, reduced its status to a globally acknowledged university of jihad,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United States President Barack Obama will meet in Washington on Thursday to chart a course for "future cooperation" in areas such as civil nuclear technology, trade, investment, defence and counter-terrorism, amid perceptions that bilateral strategic ties have plateaued.
'We have a common way of looking at the world, a common way of thinking, and a common set of values that predispose us to be partners. And our interests overlap greatly,' Dr Ashton B Carter, America's next defence secretary, told Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com in an exclusive interview.
The prime minister's visit to Washington should focus more on shopping for energy security and stopping the US from snooping on us, reigning in its popular and innocuously operated instruments to gather intelligence like Google, says Tarun Vijay.
China on Monday said India's membership bid in the NSG has become "more complicated" under the "new circumstances" as it again ruled out backing New Delhi's entry in the grouping, saying there should be non-discriminatory solution applicable to all non-NPT signatory countries.
'It is in the interest of both sides that the visit of the US President is seen as being successful. Both sides have invested considerable political capital in it. This rapid exchange of visits and the decisions taken have to be justified, beyond the symbolism, which is no doubt important in itself. This opportunity to impart a fresh momentum to ties should not be missed,' says former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal.
B S Prakash takes a tongue-in-cheek look at what India's neighbours think about the proposal of a SAARC satellite.
'It would not be incorrect to say that the Chinese-Pakistani strategy of containing India began in the aftermath of the 1965 war.'
