World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

As Turkish-Syrian tensions rise, and the prospect of a wider war looms, we need to get more substantive information on Turkish foreign policy.  Here is a news article from the Persian Gulf about Turkish fears of a rise in tension in the region. Meanwhile, the US and others try to figure out the Russian stance on Syria.

The cat and mouse game between Iran and the West on the oil sanctions continues.  The EU sanctions are supposed to go into effect on 1 July, but it will be difficult to enforce.  The more serious problem for the Iranians is the precipitous drop in the price of crude over the last month (about 20%).  Meanwhile, the US has granted China a waiver from economic sanctions because it has reduced its purchases from Iran by about 25%.  Obviously, that is less than the Americans would have preferred, but enforcing the sanctions on China would have compromised many other objectives in US-China policy.  Iran is arming its naval vessels in the Persian Gulf with shorter range missiles, indicating that it continues to fear an attack.

Source: The Economist, 15 June 2012