Chinese leader urges GCC nations to adopt yuan, Shanghai exchange for oil and gas trade

Xi Jinping called China and Gulf nations ‘natural partners’ and urged regional leaders to be partners in promoting unity, development, and security

China’s president Xi Jinping urged Gulf nations to use the Shanghai Petroleum and National Gas Exchange as a platform to receive payments of oil and gas using the Chinese yuan instead of the US dollar during a historic summit with the heads of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states on 9 December.

The Saudi-Iran rivalry stumbles into Pakistan

Riyadh’s interest in Pakistan’s Gwadar port is of particular concern for Tehran and its vital oil trade with China.

A $10 billion Saudi Aramco refinery is being built near the port city of Gwadar in Pakistan, about 169 kilometers (km) east of Iran’s Chabahar port in the western Sistan and Balochistan province.

Syria refused Turkiye’s request to hold a meeting between Erdogan and Assad

Russia has offered to mediate and facilitate a meeting between Turkiye and Syria, with limited success

On 6 December, Orhan Miroglu, the head of the Justice and Development Party, reported that Damascus turned down Ankara’s proposal to set up a meeting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Al-Mayadeen news reported.

Turkish attacks on SDF in northern Syria disrupt US oil smuggling

US convoys in Hasakah have been limited to deterring Turkish strikes on oil installations, in fear of further degradation of the decaying infrastructure

Lebanese daily newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on 7 December that the US-backed Kurdish militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has suffered immensely in the latest wave of Turkish airstrikes on northern Syria.

Can Hungary act as a bridge between Iran and Europe?

As Budapest actively implements its own “Look to the East” policy, Tehran will find a potentially useful partner in Europe.

Upon signing the protocol of the third session of the joint commission for economic cooperation between Iran and Hungary on 16 November, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó expressed support for Iran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Xi Jinping’s Visit to Saudi Arabia and the overthrow of Atlanticism

The historic China-Arab Summit currently underway in Riyadh symbolizes the emerging Eurasianism in the Persian Gulf.

As Atlanticists continue their commitment to a future shaped by energy scarcity, food scarcity, and war with their nuclear-capable neighbors, most states in the Persian Gulf that have long been trusted allies of the west have quickly come to realize that their interests are best assured by cooperating with Eurasian states like China and Russia who don’t think in those zero-sum terms.

Iran: To veil or not to veil

During a two-week visit to Iran in November, I witnessed women of all ages walking freely on the streets without the hijab. But, what we’re not told, is that they have been doing so for years.

The explosion of protests in Iran that began in September were not about the Islamic Republic’s “hijab law” specifically, but about the abuses and excesses of the so-called morality police – the Gasht-e-Ershad (also known simply as Ershad, or in English, the ‘guidance patrol’) – against regular Iranian women who were considered to be immodestly garbed.

Iranian Influence Fuels Injustice In Iraq – OpEd

An Iraqi court judgment imprisoning a young man for criticizing a governmental entity sparked anger and rejection in the southern province of Nasiriyah last week, prompting hundreds of young people to demonstrate and confront the security forces, who killed at least two demonstrators.