By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Executive Director, Political Science Association of Armenia

Iran is one of the key geopolitical actors of the Middle East. Despite the current “diplomatic isolation and maximum economic pressure” campaign launched by the US President Trump Administration, Iran retains its capabilities of making serious impact on regional geopolitics. It exerts political and economic influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen through various state and non-state actors and has a vast toolbox of asymmetric methods of political, economic and military struggle. READ MORE

• August 16, 2019

U.S.-based nuclear experts said on Friday they suspected an accidental blast and radiation release in northern Russia this week occurred during the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile vaunted by President Vladimir Putin last year.

• August 14, 2019

Saudi Arabia Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih met U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Tuesday in Washington and said both sides expressed concern over threats targeting freedom of maritime traffic in the Arabian Gulf.

• August 7, 2019

OPEC oil output hit an eight-year low in July as a further voluntary cut by top exporter Saudi Arabia deepened losses caused by U.S. sanctions on Iran and outages elsewhere in the group, a Reuters survey found.

• August 7, 2019

A series of blasts rocked an arms depot at a Russian military base in Siberia on Monday, injuring eight people and prompting aluminum producer Rusal to suspend operations at the country’s biggest alumina producing plant.

• August 5, 2019

Iran told European powers on Monday it would further reduce compliance with its 2015 nuclear deal in about a month’s time if they were still failing to protect it from crippling U.S. sanctions, reimposed after Washington exited the deal.

• August 5, 2019

By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Executive Director, Political Science Association of Armenia

In recent years, Russia – Turkey relations have gone through tremendous transformations. In November 2015, they entered the phase of acute crisis with no hope of quick improvements. However, in summer 2016 the process of reconciliation was launched, which resulted in bringing an unprecedented level of cooperation in economy and in the military-technical sphere. What are the main factors for such change and what does the current Russia – Turkey partnership mean for the South Caucasus. READ MORE

• July 26, 2019

Former U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday said President Donald Trump wanted him fired because of his investigation into possible obstruction of justice as part of the Russia investigation.

• July 24, 2019