Trump is Gaming. AU has ridiculed Kenya. US Electorate can get it Right still.

Trump is gaming…

There is a clear intent to cripple the Iranian economy. This will not help anybody.

The aftermath of the Arab spring is out there for all to see. There is no doubt that the

 sanctions will injure Iran in very real ways. But again, that alone does not guarantee

 that the regime in Tehran will soften and rethink its politics. Worse still they might fight

back, in fact they will fight back.

Iran's President /VOA

Trump’s memo on Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action almost wipes out Obama’s legacy.

Obama’s work in the Cuba has been destroyed and so are the peace prospects in the

Middle East. The Korean peninsula does not sit in any good place following this predictable

US President. Mr. Trump is following through with everything that he talked about at campaign

period.

There is no clear view how the sanction s will keep Iran from nuclear weaponry.

The US appears to have given up on diplomacy and is experimenting with anything else.

I wish that lessons from Afghanistan and Iraq should be of use at this point.

The governance structures of the Islamic republic are quite sophisticated and nobody

should underestimate the ability of Rouhani’s regime to reinvent itself. Already China and

the European Union has reiterated their support on the 2015 denuclearization deal.

The world still has to deal with the oil shortage that may be caused by the sanctions.

This might be a key point that may drive the US towards isolation.

There is a whole chunk of the global population that does not see any

sense in the sanctions especially coming soon after the ongoing trade war with China.

In a broader view, the World is better off with a peaceful Iran than a broken apart one.

Iran is a very huge economy in the Middle East and sanction in there can affect a whole lot of

stuff region wise. By curtailing export–import, the currency is weakened and this affects ordinary

 Iranians. The leadership has been cautious so far in commenting about the effects

perhaps for fear of disheartening the public. Iran has a well educated population and

the House of Leadership must play real leadership not to risk public uprising in Tehran.

After all, there could be wishes to topple leadership through Arab spring style.

Is African Union ridiculing Kenya?

At the Mashujaa Day celebrations, ODM leader announced that the African Union had

invited him to work as an envoy for infrastructure, and that he had accepted the mission.

Now, has Kenya forgotten that one of its famed diplomats vied for the AU top seat and suffered

defeat because of some unfair scheming at continental level? I see no significance in this kind

of appointment. Raila Odinga is a long standing politician whose experience should never attract

such “fictitious” appointments. A task supposedly to superintend Africa’s transport corridors is

vague and purely a political accommodation. It sounds like preparing the enigma of Kenyan

 politics for retirement. 

And by the way who was the holder of that office before Raila’s appointment?

US Midterm elections

US politics has given us much to ponder since the retirement of Barrack Obama.

The just concluded midterm elections have shown us the immense possibilities

in the land of the free.

 The election of two Muslim women to congress is a huge milestone of our times.

However, I think the context of Islam in the United States is completely different from

practice of the same religion in other parts of the world. It is a good start nonetheless

and I celebrate Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib for Minnesota and Michigan respectively.

 

Ilhan Omar, one of the first Muslim women to be elected to US Congress/Getty images