A Shared DNA? Afghan Minister’s Comment Reveals Taliban-India Collusion
Taliban Agriculture Minister Ataullah Omari recently landed in New Delhi and dropped a statement that shows the deepening strategic ties between the two regimes. He declared that Afghanistan and India share “the same DNA”. This was not a sentimental nod to ancient history. It was a calculated proclamation of a new, dark reality between two […]
Maria Shahbaz Case and the Exploitation of Religion for Political Agendas
In recent months, certain vested lobbies in Europe have seized upon the case of Maria Shahbaz, a Christian girl who voluntarily converted to Islam and contracted marriage with a Muslim boy, to advance their political agendas. Resolutions and debates have been pressed in the European Parliament based on incorrect facts and deliberate misrepresentations. Maria Shehbaz, […]
New Book Exposes the Reality of the Taliban
There is a comforting fiction that has survived four years of Taliban rule in Kabul, that whatever else the Taliban are, they are at least Afghan. Saifullah Khalid’s book, built on more than three decades of direct observation stretching back to the anti-Soviet jihad, makes a considerably more uncomfortable argument: that this distinction has collapsed, […]
Iran Calls Out Indian Media’s Hostility Against Khamanei’s Funeral
When US and Israel began their war on Iran, the world watched to see how regional powers would position themselves. Iran had complex relationships with its neighbors and regional countries, but one of its few positive ties were with India. Their cooperation on Chabahar and years of mutual diplomatic outreach gave rise to Tehran’s expectation […]
IRS, University of World Civiliations Boost Momentum for Pakistan-Russia Ties
On July 9, 2026, the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS), Islamabad, and the University of World Civilizations (UWCM), Moscow, successfully convened the second event in the ongoing Pakistan-Russia Webinar Series. Titled “Pakistan-Russia: Strengthening Trade, Education & Energy Collaboration,” the high-level dialogue brought together ministers, diplomats, business leaders, and academics to shift the focus of the […]
Rupert Lowe’s Threats Against Pakistan Expose a British Legal Failure
Rupert Lowe’s response to Pakistan’s conditions for repatriating a convicted offender was not a policy position; it was a threat list. End all Pakistani visas, cut foreign aid, tax remittances, and build what he called a deportation NATO to pressure Islamabad into compliance. The rhetoric is loud. The logic underneath it does not hold up. […]
Offshore balancing: a blueprint for Pak-US ties
A strategic compact between Pakistan and the US is a real possibility, and it needs to be viewed through the lens of American security and geopolitical interests at a time when multilateralism and international law are in retreat. Washington’s stake in the stability of South Asia — particularly Pakistan and its volatile neighbour, Afghanistan — […]
Can Pakistan and Afghanistan Afford Another Cycle of Escalations?
Pakistan conducted a ground operation against the terrorist hideouts of TTP and ISK-Province in Afghanistan and carried out calibrated airstrikes on June 28, 2026, in response to the Afghan strikes in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on 19 June, 2026. These strikes carried out by Pakistan resulted in the killings of 29 militants. Afghanistan claimed that these […]
The Taliban’s Free Ride: How Kabul’s Rulers Pocket Western Funding While Fueling Regional Chaos
Nearly five years into Taliban rule, one uncomfortable fact keeps surfacing in official audits and UN reports. The men who run Afghanistan have found ways to profit from the very aid system designed to bypass them. They have used the breathing room it buys to entrench their grip, indoctrinate a generation, and let the country […]