By Farhang Jahanpour, TFF Board Professor Farhang Jahanpour, part-time tutor on Middle Eastern affairs in the Department of Continuing Education, University of Oxford, and a member of Kellogg College says that the main reason for the idea of forming a joint European army “has been President Trump’s unilateral and ultra-nationalist approach that puts America […]
By Farhang Jahanpour November 2, 2018 On Tuesday 30 October, Denmark announced that a suspected Iranian government intelligence service had tried to carry out a plot to assassinate an Iranian Arab opposition activist on its soil. Without providing any evidence, Denmark’s foreign minister said he believed the Iranian government was behind the alleged plot, […]
By Farhang Jahanpour September 26 Last year I wrote that Trump’s speech at the UN General Assembly was perhaps the worst speech ever delivered from that podium, certainly by a Western leader. This year he surpassed himself. Why is there no rule to say that someone who openly violates the basic norms of […]
Utterly destructive, self-defeating and spelling the end of the U.S. Empire By Farhang Jahanpour September 22, 2018 In view of the macro-historical perspective on the Middle East-West relations and the concrete cases referred to in this series – Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria – it is clear that the demonization of Middle Eastern […]
By Farhang Jahanpour September 20, 2018 1. An ally in warfare and torture Although the tragic events in Syria are too close to us to pass a definitive judgement about what has happened there and we need some perspective before we can make any definitive statements, nevertheless, some of the outlines of […]
By Farhang Jahanpour September 20, 2018 On 20 March 2018, the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was taken into police custody in Paris to be questioned over allegations that he received millions of Euros in illegal funding from Qadhafi for his presidential campaign. Investigators were examining claims that Qadhafi’s regime secretly gave […]
By Farhang Jahanpour September 18, 2018 1. Some omitted facts and perspectives Prior to the Iraq war, the only thing that one heard on most Western channels about that country was Saddam Hussein and his alleged chemical and nuclear weapons. Saddam Hussein became synonymous with Iraq. Nothing was said of Iraq’s long […]
By Farhang Jahanpour September 18, 2018 1. The Carter Doctrine, Brzezinski and the Stinger missiles After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan on Christmas Day 1979, President Jimmy Carter issued his Carter Declaration, stating that the Persian Gulf was part of America’s vital interest and America would defend it by all means possible. […]
By Farhang Jahanpour September 18, 2018 1. Israel: The policy’s background As a small country with a tiny population surrounded by large and hostile countries, Israel’s policy ever since its establishment has been to rely on some external forces, the British Empire at the beginning of its creation and later on the […]
By Farhang Jahanpour September 17, 2018 1. The western demonization of Islam We have often heard about Osama bin-Laden’s outrageous remarks about the West (if not Christianity), but we often seem to ignore the remarks made by some influential writers, thinkers and politicians in the West about Islam, which are as harsh […]
