Filmbar and RPC screening of Guru Dutt's "Kaagaz Ke Phool" (1959) at the Research and Publication Centre (RPC) on Saturday, August 2, 2025, at 6:00 pm

Filmbar and RPC screening of Guru Dutt's "Kaagaz Ke Phool" (1959) at the Research and Publication Centre (RPC) on Saturday, August 2, 2025, at 6:00 pm.

"Kaagaz Ke Phool" is a timeless Hindi classic that tells the story of a celebrated filmmaker whose career and personal life begin to crumble after he discovers a young woman and turns her into a star. As fame fades and relationships strain, the film reflects on the impermanence of success and the emotional cost of creativity.

July 9, 2025 marked 100 years since the birth of Guru Dutt, a cinematic genius whose influence on Indian cinema remains unmatched. The upcoming screening of "Kaagaz Ke Phool" is a tribute to the maestro — an icon of parallel cinema known for his poetic storytelling, innovative use of light and shadow, and profound emotional depth. Guru Dutt was not only a visionary director but also a gifted actor and hands-on filmmaker who often wore multiple hats on set — writing, producing, acting, and shaping every frame with meticulous care.

"Kaagaz Ke Phool", his final directorial venture, is a deeply personal film exploring themes of fame, loneliness, and artistic disillusionment. Though it was a box office failure at the time, the film’s rejection deeply affected him, causing him to step away from direction altogether. Decades later, it was rediscovered and embraced as a cult classic — praised for its haunting cinematography, emotional complexity, and artistic bravery. Tragically, Guru Dutt passed away young, but his legacy lives on. Join us in celebrating the life and work of one of Indian cinema’s greatest auteurs through the timeless beauty of "Kaagaz Ke Phool".

The screening will be followed by an open discussion reflecting on the works of the maestro and the lasting legacy he left behind. All friends are welcome to join in this tribute to one of Indian cinema’s most influential voices. Tea will be served.

Address: Research and Publication Centre (RPC), 2nd Floor, 65 Main Boulevard Gulberg, Lahore (Next to Standard Chartered Bank, above Indesign Showroom).

Lift is functional.

Google Maps Pin:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/9PnxcnwqZNZKCpZq9

In case of a query, Please feel free to contact the number given below.
Name: Harris Khan
Contact: 0300 7445453

Filmbar and RPC's screening of David Cronenberg’s "Crash" (1996), Saturday, July 27, 2025 at 6:00 pm at the Research and Publication Centre (RPC)

Filmbar and RPC's screening of David Cronenberg’s "Crash" (1996), Saturday, July 27, 2025 at 6:00 pm at the Research and Publication Centre (RPC).

A provocative and haunting exploration of desire, technology, and trauma, Crash remains one of Cronenberg’s most daring and controversial films. Adapted from J G Ballard’s cult novel, the film follows individuals whose fascination with car accidents blurs the lines between pleasure and pain, intimacy and machinery.

Viewer discretion is advised — the film is a cult classic and contains explicit scenes and may not be suitable for all audiences.

📍 Important Notice: Screenings will no longer take place on Fridays. From now on, all screenings will be held on Saturdays.

Address: Research and Publication Centre (RPC), 2nd Floor, 65 Main Boulevard Gulberg, Lahore (Next to Standard Chartered Bank, above Indesign Showroom).
Lift is functional.

The screening will be followed by a discussion about the different works of Cronenberg and the novel by J G Ballard on which the film is based. All friends are welcome. Tea will be served. Join us for an evening of bold, boundary-pushing cinema.

Google Maps Pin:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/9PnxcnwqZNZKCpZq9

In case of a query, Please feel free to contact the number given below.
Name: Harris Khan
Contact: 0300 7445453

Business Recorder Column July 22, 2025

Israel’s expansionism

 

Rashed Rahman

 

In the convoluted and strife-ridden terrain of the Middle East, one fact remains constant and easily discernible. This is the Zionist entity Israel’s constantly being on the lookout for opportunities to feed its unlimited appetite for expansionism since its creation in 1948. In that founding year, Israel blatantly violated the UN Partition Plan for Palestine, intended to provide two states, Israel and Palestine, to accommodate the mixed populace as a result of the British Mandate authorities conniving at illegal Jewish migration to the so-called ‘Promised Land’. It perpetrated the Naqba (Catastrophe) to expel thousands of Palestinians from territories designated as Palestinian by the UN Plan. So even the unjust Partition of Palestine (a shift of culpability by the West for the Holocaust onto innocent Palestinian shoulders) was not adhered to by the Zionist settler colonialists. Then in 1956 Israel joined Britain and France (the Mandate powers in the region between WWI and WWII and arguably the authors of all the mischief perpetrated against the Arabs as a whole) in attacking Egypt to try and wrest back from Nasser’s nationalisation of the Suez Canal that critical passageway for the world’s trade. Unfortunately for this evil trio, the new dominant western power, the US, vetoed their plans in the interests of its newfound desire for global hegemony in the aftermath of WWII and even in the early days of the Cold War. In 1967, Israel launched a surprise attack against its Arab neighbours, Egypt, Syria and Jordan, destroying their air forces on the ground and seizing Sinai, the Golan Heights and the West Bank (including Jerusalem, the historic site of religious wars such as the Crusades). Since then, Sinai (the Gaza Strip excepted) was returned to Egypt after Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel following the indecisive 1973 war, annexed the Golan Heights and is currently in the process of carrying out a genocide in Gaza and a creeping annexation in the West Bank through militant, armed Israeli settlers, backed by the Israeli army.

As if all this were not enough, Israel has been playing a sinister, expansionist role in post-Assad Syria. Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government that came to power in Syria as the culmination of the 14-year civil war in Syria, given its past al Qaeda roots and current religious fundamentalist character, carried within it the real possibility of not only not being able to weld a united country out of the ruins, but in fact becoming the main factor in impending conflict with the religious and ethnic minorities in Syria. Sure enough, the Sunni fundamentalist Hay’at Tahrir al Sham party of al-Sharaa has clashed with the Alawite minority (to which Assad’s elite belonged) in March 2025 on the Syrian coast that left about 1,600 people dead. Another outbreak of violence outside Damascus in May killed more than 100 people, mostly Druze. The current round of conflict in Suweida in southern Syria began about a week ago with an exchange of attacks and kidnappings between Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze militias, who practice a secretive religion rooted in Ismaili Islam. Since the new government came to power in December 2024, a collection of Druze militias had secured Suweida and refused to integrate their forces into the new national army, an objective the Syrian government has been actively pursuing to bring the fractured militias scene under control.

As the unrest in Suweida worsened, the government deployed military forces in the area to quell the conflict. But Druze militia leaders, deeply distrustful of the new Islamist authorities, believed these forces were coming to attack them. They then mobilised to repel the incoming government forces, escalating the fighting and in the process, yielding a harvest of over 1,000 people killed, many thousand wounded, 80,000 displaced. The evidence for the bloodbath was the piles of dead and wounded in Suweida’s hospitals, whom an overstretched medical structure could barely see to. At this point, using the plight of the Druze minority as a cover (the Druze are also a minority in Israel, integrated closely with its military and security infrastructure), Israel bombed south Syria and the Syrian military’s Damascus Headquarters. Al-Sharaa withdrew his forces in the face of this Israeli assault, which threatened to blow up into a war with Israel. The US then intervened, persuading Israel to cut al-Sharaa (their ‘newly found’ ally) some slack, which allowed him to take advantage of Tel Aviv’s ‘generous offer’ of redeployment in Suweida for just two days to separate the warring militias and enforce a tenuous peace. One wonders how long this peace will last if the Syrian military once more is forced to retreat by Israeli pressure.

What is Israel’s objective in this complicated conflict? To be noted: apart from the annexed Golan Heights, Israel has, since the fall of Assad, set up 10 bases inside Syrian territory abutting the Golan Heights. Not only that, it has dictated to Damascus that south Syria is to remain free of Syrian military forces. No doubt the game plan is that in the name of ‘rescuing’ their dearly beloved Druze minority in Syria, Israel is just waiting to pounce on southern Syria to gobble up more territory. Given this expansionist history, can one hope for anything except conflict so long as Israel continues to exist with the unfettered support and help of the US-led West?

 

 

 

 

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com

Business Recorder Column July 15, 2025

The end of PKK’s armed struggle?

 

Rashed Rahman

 

Thirty fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on July 11, 2025 rather than surrender them to Turkish authorities in a symbolic step towards ending a decades-long insurgency. Half the fighters were women, including their commander Bese Hozat, who read out a statement declaring the group’s decision to disarm. The PKK ranks are a reflection of its success in mobilising women for the armed struggle and giving them command responsibilities. Further handovers (burning?) of weapons is expected, but there is no confirmation when and where so far. After the burning ceremony, the fighters were to return to the mountains. The symbolic surrender process was expected to unfold throughout the summer. The PKK, on its incarcerated and kept in solitary confinement since 1999 leader Abdullah Ocalan’s call, decided in May 2025 to dissolve itself and switch to open parliamentary politics. Thus seems to have come to a close the PKK’s armed struggle since 1978 for, at a minimum, Kurdish linguistic, cultural and political rights (autonomy) within Turkiye, and at a maximum, secession and an independent Kurdish state. The conflict cost over 40,000 lives, burdened the economy and engendered deep social and political divisions. PKK’s ideology was originally a fusion of revolutionary socialism, Marxism-Leninism and Kurdish nationalism. Turkiye over the years has consistently carried out military suppression campaigns, banned PKK in 1984, abducted Abdullah Ocalan from abroad in 1999 and kept him in solitary confinement since in an island prison in the Sea of Marmara. Of late, indirect negotiations between the Turkish authorities and Ocalan finally yielded the disarmament/dissolution decision by PKK.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the development, hoping it would lead to peace and security in the country. Despite his optimism, the road ahead appears uncertain, since there is little or no news about what the PKK has been offered in return for its decision to disarm/dissolve. PKK’s demands include the release of Abdullah Ocalan. The portents are not good if the statement of Turkish officials engaged in the negotiations are taken note of. They display no intention to offer any concessions on even the minimum Kurdish demands such as linguistic, cultural and political rights. What then, it may be asked, will the Kurds get in exchange for disarming? It seems obvious that the (long standing) failure to offer even autonomy carries the seeds of renewed conflict.

For as long as the Turkish post-Kemalist state has been in existence, the Kurds were denied use of their own language, culture, identity and autonomy in the name of the supposed advantages of a unified, centralised state. (The Kurds were disparagingly referred to as ‘Mountain Turks’.) Erdogan’s long stint in power yielded some cultural concessions, but these proved insufficient to quell Kurdish alienation. Military campaigns against the Kurds in southeastern Turkey led to PKK fighters seeking and obtaining safe havens in northern Iraq, a semi-autonomous Kurd region within that country. PKK controls hundreds of villages in Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkey’s forays across the border to attack the PKK safe havens intensified in recent years with Ankara establishing outposts across the border and frequently attacking PKK positions. This produced tensions between Iraqi Kurds and the PKK, blamed for bringing the war to the doorstep of the former. It was after the shift in Iraq’s posture in April 2024, when it banned the PKK following high level security meetings between Iraqi and Turkish officials that the PKK’s safe havens were rendered no longer safe. The combination of military difficulties in this situation and the indirect negotiations between the Turkish authorities and Ocalan finally produced the current turnaround. With the PKK weakened and the Kurdish people exhausted, and no end in sight to the seemingly endless war, Ocalan’s PKK finally swallowed the bitter pill. This was reflected in the crowds attending the surrendered arms burning, with both cheering and weeping in evidence.

The Kurds, divided between four countries, Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, have suffered an unfortunate history. Mullah Mustafa Barzani’s armed struggle for autonomy or independence for Iraqi Kurdistan in the 1960s was eventually defeated and he sought sanctuary in the Soviet Union. (His son currently heads the Iraqi Kurdistan semi-autonomous region.) Iran’s Kurds’ uprising after the 1979 Iranian revolution was brutally crushed. The Syrian Kurds joined hands with the US to combat Islamic State and other extremist religious groups in the country’s civil war. Now the Turkish Kurds, having given up the armed struggle without any evident reward in return, contemplate an uncertain future, given Turkey’s past record and current disposition.

The lesson to be learnt is that any multi-ethnic, multi-national state not prepared to concede autonomy reflected in linguistic, cultural, economic and political rights to its minority nationalities, more often than not ends up with long and seemingly unending avoidable conflict to its own cost. Such conflicts, as they drag on, radically escalate from the demand for autonomy to breakaway independence, successful in this endeavour or not.

 

 

 

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com 

RPC screening of "Triangle of Sadness" (2022) directed by acclaimed Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund on Friday, July 11, 2025 @ 6.00 pm

Research and Publication Centre (RPC) cordially invites you to a screening of "Triangle of Sadness" (2022), directed by acclaimed Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund, on Friday, July 11, 2025 at 6:00 pm.

Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Ruben Östlund’s "Triangle of Sadness" is a bold and provocative satire that dissects the absurdities of wealth, privilege, and social class. The film follows a fashion model couple through a luxury cruise gone wrong, unravelling societal structures with biting humour and unsettling precision.

Through its genre-shifting narrative and sharp inversion of power dynamics, "Triangle of Sadness" holds a mirror to the world we live in – revealing the fragility of status, the performance of power, and the grotesque contradictions that underpin global inequality. At once hilarious and horrifying, the film pushes us to question the values we take for granted.

📍 Venue:
Research and Publication Centre (RPC), 2nd Floor, 65 Main Boulevard Gulberg, Lahore
(Next to Standard Chartered Bank, above Indesign Showroom)
Lift is functional.

☕ Followed by an informal discussion over tea

📍 Google Maps Pin

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Um9WeHWQrp7ECN7V8

All friends and fellow cinephiles are welcome.

For further information, Please Contact:
Harris Khan
📞 0300 7445453

Business Recorder Column July 8, 2025

Taliban regime recognition

 

Rashed Rahman

 

History is subject to strange twists and turns. One such is the decision by Russia to recognise the Afghan Taliban regime, the first and only country so far to do so. One hardly needs reminding of Russian sensitivity on the issue, given that the Afghan Taliban emerged from the womb of the Mujahideen who fought the Soviet occupation with the help of Pakistan and the US-led west for a decade, following which Russia (then the Soviet Union) finally decided to call it a day and withdrew in 1989 after Gorbachev assumed the leadership in Moscow. Arguably, that defeat, or rather being fought to a stalemate, fed into the troubled waters afflicting the Soviet Union and its ultimate collapse. The intriguing question is, why has Russia, given this painful past, ‘jumped the gun’ in this regard before China, India or even Pakistan?

For one, Russia is seeking to expand its diplomatic footprint globally, including south west Asia, in order to reverse the isolation into which the US-led west has been trying to push it since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war. Its decision to formally exchange ambassadors therefore smacks of realpolitik, strategic opportunism, and positioning itself to engage in economic cooperation with the region in the fields of energy, transport and infrastructure. For Pakistan, troubled as it is by the conscious or tacit hosting of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other hostile groups on Afghan soil, Russian lack of leverage over the Afghan Taliban in this regard offers little hope of the betterment of the fraught situation on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Although recent diplomatic moves aided by China, including a visit to Kabul by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, show signs of improving diplomatic relations between the two neighbouring countries, this is still some way from Kabul halting completely the attacks on Pakistan by the TTP, Hafiz Gul Bahadar Group and other fundamentalist groups based on Afghan soil.

Russia’s diplomatic initiative may well persuade other countries to follow suit. Moscow has recognised the Taliban regime as an acceptance of its de facto control of the country, with little or no resistance left to its stranglehold. Of the countries interested in recognition, China stands out most. Beijing’s interest in rare earth and other minerals in Afghanistan is by now a matter of record. China also seeks to blunt the presence and activities of religious extremist and fundamentalist groups such as Islamic State and al Qaeda based in Afghanistan lest this affliction spills over to its restless Xinjiang region, where an Islamic resistance movement has been controlled after much effort stretching over many years.

If the Afghan Taliban were to accept good advice, or be willing to learn from the past, they need look no further than Pakistan’s experience of supporting proxies in the long war for control of Afghanistan. Not only did Islamabad’s Afghan proxies nurture and give birth to the Pakistani Taliban, by now even the so-called ‘good’ Taliban (TTP, etc) have long since turned against it. If Kabul hopes to use the TTP and similar groups to change Pakistan into a mirror of what it has implemented in its own territory, it should heed the well-meaning warning about proxies being double edged swords, as Pakistan can ruefully testify from its own experience. Pakistan has clearly stated after the Russian recognition announcement that it is in no hurry to extend recognition, pending the hoped for improvement in the behaviour of the Afghan Taliban regime in scotching the cross-border attacks of the TTP etc. If that is the case, that recognition by Islamabad may be some way down the road because Kabul’s ostensible moves to prevent cross-border attacks by the TTP and others seem more window dressing than consistent, serious policy.

As to the Afghan people themselves, precious little except hope for economic and other betterment in a country afflicted with want and hunger, in the wake of Moscow’s decision can be heard from those interviewed in Afghanistan in this regard. On the other hand, not surprisingly, Afghan women hold little hope of any betterment under the patriarchal, male chauvinist order the Taliban have once again imposed. In short, those hopeful of better days and those gloomy at the prospects for the future amongst the Afghan people in the aftermath of Russian recognition can only be pitied and prayed for. Afghanistan not only shows no signs of ending the dark night it has been enveloped in after the (second) Taliban takeover, Kabul is being rewarded with recognition (actual and potential) by countries whose own interests (as usual, no great surprise there) override any other principle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com

Screening of Palestinian film "Omar" (2013, directed by Hand Abu-Assad, at RPC on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, 6:00 pm

We cordially invite you to a special screening of Omar (2013), a critically acclaimed Palestinian thriller directed by Hany Abu-Assad. Set against the backdrop of military occupation, Omar tells the story of a young man torn between love, loyalty, and resistance as he faces the psychological toll of life under constant surveillance and violence. The film explores themes of trust, betrayal, and political struggle, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Date & Time: Wednesday, July 2nd | 6:00 PM

Venue: Research and Publication Centre (RPC), 2nd Floor, 65 Main Boulevard, Gulberg, Lahore
(Next to Standard Chartered Bank, above Indesign Showroom – Lift is functional)

This screening is being held in collaboration with Khalq Youth Front (KYF), a left-leaning student political organization committed to grassroots political education and activism. As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once again draws global concern—especially in light of recent escalations between Iran and Israel—there is a growing recognition of the urgency to act. However, while many express outrage and solidarity, the conflict remains deeply misunderstood due to the lack of historical and political context. Misinterpretations and oversimplified narratives often dominate the discourse, making it difficult to move beyond surface-level reactions.

To build meaningful and effective solidarity, we must begin by understanding the roots of the conflict—its colonial history, its human cost, and its political complexities. This screening is not just an event—it is the beginning of a necessary conversation. The goal is to foster informed dialogue, raise awareness, and explore how a broad-based, national solidarity campaign with Palestine can be initiated.

The screening will be followed by an important discussion on how to take this conversation forward and translate it into collective political action. All friends and comrades are welcome. Tea will be served.

Google Maps Pin:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/9PnxcnwqZNZKCpZq9

For queries, please contact:
Name: Harris Khan
Phone: 0300-7445453

The July 2025 issue of Pakistan Monthly Review is out

The July 2025 issue of Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) is out. Link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com

Contents:

1. GRAIN and Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee: Gulf investors in, locals out: Pakistan’s corporate farming agenda.

2. Kriti M Shah: The Baloch and Pashtun nationalist movements in Pakistan: Colonial legacy and the failure of state policy – I.

3. Vijay Prashad: A Language of Blood has gripped our World.

4. Zulfiqar Gilani: Critical Scholarship in Pakistan.

5. Fayyaz Baqir: Reply to Imtiaz Alam’s Rejoinder.

Rashed Rahman

Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)

Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook)

Business Recorder Column July 1, 2025

Rogue states

 

Rashed Rahman

 

The US-led west has created new forms and methods of exercising its hegemony over the rest of the world. The colonial history of the past two centuries is already filled with atrocities committed against the colonised in the name of a ‘civilising’ mission. In later times, and particularly since the decolonisation process following World War II, the US-led west has developed an extensive theoretical and ideological narrative to justify its so-called ‘rules-based order’. The unanswered questions this gives rise to are 1) What rules? 2) Whose rules? 3) How, after delineating these ‘rules’, does the US-led west see fit to violate them in letter and spirit wherever its interests are involved, including, first and foremost, global hegemony?

While the guns have fallen silent in the recent wars between Pakistan and India and Iran and Israel, with the US in tow to the latter, these conflagrations have given new life to the questions posed above. In the case of Pakistan and India, yes, we managed to get the better of India after it launched attacks across the international border, but our subsequent emphasis on dialogue between the two contending sides appears to be a fond hope at best, given Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s embarrassment. The likelihood is that new forms of action will now replace India’s open cross-border hostilities, including sabotage and covert actions. As far as the Iran-Israel-US conflagration goes, it is by now obvious to even the purblind that Israel is the settler colonialist cat’s paw of the US-led west, supplied, armed and encouraged in its outrageous behaviour with its neighbours near and far and the Palestinians by its ‘masters’. If this seems an oversimplification, one may concede that occasionally Israel jumps the gun or acts (has acted) in ways unpalatable to western interests, but these are lovers’ quarrels soon settled.

In the case of Iran, the ostensible aims of the Israeli and US attacks seem far from achieved. If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s thirty year bellicosity regarding Iran’s transition to a nuclear weapons power (“any day now”, repeated ad nauseam by this mischief maker) has led logically and inexorably to its 14-day barrage against Iran, capped by Trump’s belligerent strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, neither has succeeded in the aims trotted out by both. Neither has Iran’s nuclear capability been irreparably harmed, nor has the much desired in Washington and Tel Aviv regime change in Tehran occurred. On the contrary, Iran has safeguarded its 60 percent enriched uranium and the Iranian people, even those not well disposed towards the mullah regime in Tehran, have rallied in defence of their country. In other words, the Israeli-US assault on Iran has proved an utter failure.

Israel, on the other hand, has for perhaps the first time, received a small dose of what it has been dishing out with gay abandon to the hapless, defenceless Palestinians and their dwindling number of sympathisers in Lebanon and Yemen. It is perhaps too soon to speculate, but Israel’s much vaunted impenetrability has certainly been dented, even if not completely demolished. This is bound to have some impact on new emigration into Israel, if not an outflux of fearful Israelis to safer climes. But the bitter fact has now, in the light of what has transpired since October 2023, to be frankly acknowledged that the hopes of Hamas in attacking Israel in an unprecedented manner and capturing hostages to bargain with have been dashed. It appeared that Hamas was attempting to nullify the growing ranks of Arab countries succumbing to the ‘temptation’ of joining the ranks of their brother countries in signing onto the so-called Abraham Accords floated by Trump in his first term. In essence these were meant to pave the way for recognition of, and peace with, Israel as an undeniable and settled fact of life. In return, the Arab states being wooed were promised generous largesse emanating from Washington’s banquet table. If Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar’s denial statement the other day is taken note of, it seems Pakistan too is being ‘wooed’ by certain quarters to sign on to this ignominious surrender and betrayal of the Palestinians.

Though a ‘peace’ of sorts reigns, Iran’s perception of doubting Israel’s respect for the ceasefire hits the nail on the head, particularly if Trump’s statement about bombing Iran again if necessary is taken into account. Why is Iran being ‘blessed’ by so much of this unwanted attention? The logical answer is that after weakening Iran’s allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the hegemonic dreamers in Washington are desirous of delivering the final blow that will cleanse the Middle East of any semblance of resistance to their desired goal of complete hegemony. To achieve this, objective analysis suggests they can go to any lengths. In the process of course, the violation of their own professed ‘rules-based order’ would justify classifying the US as a rogue state. As for Israel, it has never subscribed to any international rules of behaviour and is therefore more than deserving of this appellation.

 

rashed.rahman1@gmail.com

rashed-rahman.blogspot.com