Author: Mideast discourse

Bahrain has agreed to buy the US-built Patriot anti-aircraft and missile interceptor system, the Raytheon Company said in a press release. Bahrain signed an agreement to purchase Raytheon’s… Patriot air and missile defense system from the US Army”, the release said. “This letter of offer and acceptance allows the US government to begin contract negotiations with Raytheon for… an undisclosed quantity of systems and missiles”. The release said that the venerable Patriot Integrated Air and Missile Defence Systemwas designed to defend against ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and manned and unmanned aircraft. “Patriot is continually modernized, enhanced and upgraded, through this 17-nation…

Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets convoying a plane with the Russian defense minister on board chased away a NATO F-18 , which tried to shadow it over the Baltic Sea. Sergey Shoigu was returning from Russia’s Kaliningrad region guarded by two Su-27 escorts, according to Zvezda TV, the television channel of the Russian Defense Ministry. In MoD footage, a NATO war plane is seen approaching Shoigu’s jet, with the camera filming the F-18 up-close. Moments later, it swerves to the left as it’s chased away by the Sukhoi. The Su-27 Flanker is a Russian fourth-generation fighter jet that has been around…

By Andrew Korybko Iran had hitherto allowed India to make a fool out of it without uttering even the faintest protest in response, yet the Islamic Republic’s previously servile attitude might be changing if two recent statements by its leadership are any indication of a new approach taking shape towards the South Asian state. India recently made a fool out of Iran by complying with the US’ unilateral sanctions against its oil industry, victimizing it with blowback from the Hybrid War on CPEC, and allying with its sworn American & “Israeli” enemies, yet the Islamic Republic’s previously servile attitude towards the South Asian…

By Pepe Escobar Complex doesn’t even begin to describe the positioning of Iran-Russia in the geopolitical chessboard. What’s clear in our current, volatile moment is that they’re partners, as I previously reported. Although not strategic partners, as in the Russia-China tie-up, Russia-China-Iran remain the crucial triad in the ongoing, multi-layered, long-term Eurasia integration process. A few days after our Asia Times report, an article – based on “senior sources close to the Iranian regime” and crammed with fear-mongering, baseless accusations of corruption and outright ignorance about key military issues – claimed that Russia would turn the Iranian ports of Bandar Abbas and Chabahar into forward…