'The next two to three weeks will not be decided in Washington.' 'They will be decided in Tehran, in whatever calculation Iran makes about the costs of continued resistance against the costs of appearing to have yielded.'
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.
Amid growing international instability, folks all over the world are wondering if there is any country that can be considered a secure refuge, should this conflict expand into a larger war, drawing in many more nations.
According to a report by France 24, the US President did not say whether he meant nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed submarines. He also did not elaborate on the locations.
Although extensive air attacks have been carried out to destroy most of Iran's defence capabilities, the latter's resilience and sustenance during the war clearly indicate that the US landing force would encounter severe resistance in the operation, explains Commodore Venugopal Vengalil (retd).
The LPG squeeze on India's restaurant sector is the quotidian face of a deeper crisis.
US President Donald Trump has again credited himself for ending the conflict between India and Pakistan, asserting Norway controls the Nobel Peace Prize. He claims he deserves the honor for ending eight wars and saving millions of lives.
'No, India and China were not about to go to all-out war over a few rocks of Galwan.' 'The full picture of what went on at the highest level between two heads of State will not be known for a very, very long time and rightly so,' points out Colonel Anil A Athale, former head of the history division, ministry of defence.
The ceasefire is still technically holding, to the extent that no overt hostilities have been reported yet, but the rhetoric has hardened dangerously. The week ahead will also clarify whether the Islamabad failure was a negotiating tactic or whether Washington has genuinely locked itself into a position from which the only exits are climb-down, escalation, or the slow bleed of a new status quo that nobody chose and nobody controls. Prem Panicker continues his must read blog on the Iran War.
The White House has responded cautiously to reports of Pakistan offering to mediate between the US and Iran, amid ongoing tensions and potential talks.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has offered to host talks between the US and Iran to help resolve the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, following reports of Pakistan's involvement in backchannel diplomacy.
The IRGC had announced earlier that it was carrying out an intense wave of attacks on US and Israeli positons throughout the region since dawn, using missiles as well as drones.
'The entire US ecosystem built over decades at the bases in the Gulf region, especially the UAE, costing trillions of dollars have been decimated, dealing a mortal blow to the US Central Command's war capability,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Fight on toward goals that keep receding, or exit with most objectives unmet. Trump is agitated, his poll numbers falling below the Plimsoll line, his base fractured between those who back the war and those who remember that he campaigned on ending them.
For weeks, the war skirted the edge of catastrophe without tipping over. Missiles flew, there was much destruction, commanders were assassinated, cities across the Gulf and even in Israel struggled to absorb the shock. But one line held: Energy infrastructure, the arteries of the global economy, remained largely untouched. That is no longer true. Prem Panicker continues his must read daily blog on the Gulf War.
Afghans have deep self-respect and are the last people to put up with humiliation. Is it any surprise that relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have touched an all-time low and the two countries are now at war? asks M R Narayan Swamy.
The purge in Washington does not pause the war. Strikes continue, Hormuz remains closed, and Brent crude is still dancing around $109 a barrel. For India, the command chaos in the Pentagon is another layer of uncertainty piled on five weeks of conflict that was already straining every buffer Delhi has.
'To suddenly give the impression of taking a position that is hostile to Iran, or, at least, not friendly to Iran, is not a good thing.'
The enduring relationship between the two countries have survived the disintegration of the erstwhile USSR in 1991, the end of the Cold War and the regime change in both countries, points out Rup Narayan Das.
For that to happen America does not have to lose. It only has to do the right thing, asserts Aakar Patel.
The proposals outlined in Budget 2026-27 represent a carefully crafted, multi-year strategy designed to strengthen India's big bets on the path to Viksit Bharat 2047, says Sameer Gupta.
President Trump asserts the US military has decimated Iran's forces and no longer requires assistance from NATO allies to secure the Strait of Hormuz, despite earlier requests for support.
Tensions escalate at the UN Security Council as the US and Israel defend their military actions against Iran, while Iran condemns the strikes as war crimes, raising fears of a wider Middle East conflict.
If the Iranian regime needs to be punished for promoting quasi-terrorist outfits like Hezbollah and Hamas, then what about Pakistan which has spent decades exporting terror around the world, killing thousands, particularly in Afghanistan and India? asks M R Narayan Swamy.
Alliances fight wars effectively only when they share an endgame. If Israel acted without US knowledge, then the military alliance is operating without real coordination at the level of strategic targeting. Neither picture is reassuring in a war that is no longer regional in its consequences. Prem Panicker continues his must read daily blog on the Gulf War.
16 days into the war, US forces were already running out of ground-attack missiles and Israel is about to expend its entire Arrow interceptor missiles by end March. To be sure, the Iranians are watching closely and that explains their defiant stance that 'Iran will end the war when it decides to do so and when its conditions are met', notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
What we are watching is something different: A fog manufactured and maintained by the people who started the war, so that the question of why it was started never has to be answered, observes Prem Panicker in his must read blog on the war in the Middle East.
Under the defence partnership, India and the UAE are eyeing defence industrial collaboration and cooperation in advanced technologies, cyberspace training, special operations, interoperability of their militaries and counter terrorism.
We cannot simply have a 60-65 per cent import dependency in LPG, the bulk of which comes from just one volatile region -- West Asia, points out R Jagannathan.
The two countries also asked all nations to stop cross-border movement of terrorists and asserted that a decisive collective response from the international community without 'double standards and selectivity' was required to combat the threat of terrorism.
Under a 2010 nuclear liability law, nuclear equipment suppliers are liable for damages from an accident, which companies say is a sharp deviation from international norms
Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey met in Islamabad in what analysts say is the formal opening of a new diplomatic formation that could reshape the post-war regional order. Their immediate goal is a ceasefire; their larger ambition is to ensure that neither Iran nor Israel emerges from this war in a dominant position. Pakistan's foreign minister then flew directly to Beijing and mooted a Chinese role as guarantor of any eventual agreement. Prem Panicker continues his must read daily blog on the Gulf War.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt noted that progress has been made in the Geneva talks with Iranian authorities, but the two nations stand 'far apart' on certain issues.
Israel has for more than two decades and several US presidencies worked to draw the United States into a full-scale war with Iran. Having finally achieved that, the last thing it wants is Trump declaring victory and going home, as he is prone to do. Ali Larijani was the figure most capable of handing Trump a negotiated exit with something to show for it. Without Larijani, the road to an exit gets considerably narrower. Prem Panicker continues his must read daily blog on the Gulf War.
India and Canada are negotiating a long-term uranium supply agreement worth $2.8 billion. They are also exploring expanded civil nuclear cooperation after the passage of the SHANTI Bill.
The military command clarified in a statement published on X that the aircraft were engaged in error during active combat operations on Sunday.
'Based on the joint statement, a formal agreement will be drafted, which may take a month or month-and-a-half to finalise. We aim to sign the formal agreement by mid-March.'
Russia, being bogged down by the Ukraine war and prioritising the requirements of its own armed forces, along with India's consistent diversification policy, will remain a major challenge to the bilateral partnership, note Harsh V Pant and Aleksei Zakharov.
Indian equity markets experienced a volatile trading day, with the Sensex and Nifty closing almost flat. Market sentiment was influenced by global cues, US-Iran talks, and profit-booking activities.
Claiming yet again that he solved the conflict between India and Pakistan, United States President Donald Trump has said that 'no one in history is more deserving than him' of the Nobel Peace Prize, as he criticised former President Barack Obama for getting the honour even though he 'didn't do anything'.
