ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Iran said a US aircraft carrier “acted provocatively and unprofessionally” after its Revolutionary Guards seized two US boats that strayed into Islamic Republic's territorial waters. The USS Harry S. Truman, which is currently deployed in the Persian Gulf, has been conducting improper maneuvers in the wake of the detention of the boats, a top Iranian naval commander claimed. Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, the chief of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Navy, talked about the incident with the American boats in a live interview on state TV. Fadavi dismissed reports that the ten American troops detained by the IRGC would soon be released as “speculation.” He said they would be questioned and warned that Iran would “act properly” if it concludes that the boats entered Iranian waters on an espionage mission rather than by accident. He confirmed that US Secretary of State John Kerry had talked with his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif. Zarif demanded a formal apology for the breach of Ir...

By Michael T. Klare As 2015 drew to a close, many in the global energy industry were praying that the price of oil would bounce back from the abyss, restoring the petroleum-centric world of the past half-century. All evidence, however, points to a continuing depression in oil prices in 2016 -- one that may, in fact, stretch into the 2020s and beyond. Given the centrality of oil (and oil revenues) in the global power equation, this is bound to translate into a profound shakeup in the political order, with petroleum-producing states from Saudi Arabia to Russia losing both prominence and geopolitical clout. To put things in perspective, it was not so long ago -- in June 2014, to be exact -- that Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, was selling at $115 per barrel. Energy analysts then generally assumed that the price of oil would remain well over $100 deep into the future, and might gradually rise to even more stratospheric levels. Such predictions inspired the giant energy com...

In an interview with RT, Virginia state Senator Richard Black says that Saudi Arabia and Turkey are the two biggest threats to world. “It is Saudi Arabia, through the Wahhabist doctrine, that is spreading terrorism across the globe. It’s not Iran, it’s not Syria or any other country.” Meanwhile, Turkish President Erdogan intends to impose an absolute dictatorship, the senator says.