The Taliban-run higher education ministry has begun issuing bachelor’s degrees to 325 madrassa graduates, including alumni of religious schools in Pakistan, according to a ministry statement and an official list.
The ministry said the process started on Thursday, Feb. 12. Among those set to receive degrees are 10 graduates of what it described as “jihadi” madrassas.
The U.S. military is preparing for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long operations against Iran if President Donald Trump orders an attack, two U.S. officials told Reuters, in what could become a far more serious conflict than previously seen between the countries.
The disclosure by the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the planning, raises the stakes for the diplomacy underway between the United States and Iran.
Khamenei’s renewed defiance is inspired by four conclusions he has drawn from the latest events…. the “Supreme Guide” seems determined to work with a more compact group of no-questions-asked loyalists on a platform of revolutionary defiance moderated by cosmetic gestures he calls “heroic flexibility”.
As commendable as it may be that US President Donald J. Trump is apparently hoping that he can turn “swords into ploughshares,” the inclusion of avowedly pro-Islamist, pro-terrorist countries such as Turkey, Qatar and Pakistan in his so-called “Board of Peace” has all the potential thoroughly to undermine the American leader’s peace initiative in Gaza.
The file of northeastern Syria, defined by negotiations and clashes between the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is nearing a decisive stage, following a military operation that led to broad control by the Syrian army, backed by Arab tribes, across eastern Syria.
Damascus witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Chevron and the Qatar-based company Power International Holding on February 4. The goal of the new agreement is to push forward with the “development of the country’s first offshore oil and gas field,” Syrian state media SANA said. US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack wrote that he was “honored to witness Syria’s historic milestone for offshore gas exploration.”
Making the remarks on Monday, Jabbar-Ali Zakeri pointed to the increase in the number of the Chinese trains passing through Iran, and emphasized the need to reduce transportation costs between Iran and China in order to boost exports.
China is receiving a wave of high-profile visits by world leaders lately. At least five world leaders have visited Beijing in January alone. And the momentum continues on February.
When The Guardian reported on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s recently concluded China trip, it stated, “Starmer hopes his China trip will begin the thaw after recent ice age.”
Fantasies of Fragmenting Iran Only Serve Israeli Interests.
A troubling convergence has emerged among Western think tanks, Israeli politicians, and exiled opposition figures advocating for the partition of Iran along ethnic and sectarian lines. This strategy represents a dangerous escalation from traditional regime change toward what can only be described as regime destruction, a policy shift that would benefit Israeli regional ambitions while catastrophically destabilizing the Middle East and creating humanitarian disasters that would dwarf the Syrian refugee crisis.
The South Caucasus – comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia – is a small but geopolitically significant region, susceptible to intense competition between regional and global powers. It is also situated at a strategic crossroads between Russia, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, which was followed by the expulsion of 120,000 ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan’s forcible takeover of the entire region in September 2023, shifted the regional balance of power in favour of Azerbaijan.