Vatanka Reports
News and Analysis on the Greater Middle East 
 

Last week’s visit by a senior Omani defense delegation to Tehran suggests that Muscat’s policy of friendship toward Tehran is determined.

Thanks to the unending American-Russian standoff over Ukraine, there are voices in Tehran that seem to believe that the road to international rehabilitation goes through Moscow.

Ashton Carter will take over the helm at the Pentagon at a moment of heightened volatility on the global stage. Carter has his work cut out for him.

In Iraq, the Islamic State (ISIS) is no longer on the offensive.

At first glance, Iran appears to be unconvinced about Afghanistan’s new President Ashraf Ghani, and the feeling is probably mutual.

The general consensus among Western observers is that Iran is at best a minor foreign participant in the internal Yemeni struggle for power.

On the back of President Hassan Rouhani's visit to Baku on 12 November, Iran's role in the South Caucasus is once again in the limelight.

As Iran and the United States negotiate with the aim of reaching a diplomatic nuclear settlement by November 24, 2014, no one can doubt the potential implications of the talks.

..will be, more than ever, a de facto state. This is the closest that the Kurds anywhere will have ever come to what looks and feels like an independent state.

Iran’s nightmare on its border with Pakistan continues unabated.

There have been a number of rounds of border skirmishes between Iran and Pakistan since the first week of October.

Another round of nuclear talks ended late Thursday in Vienna.