Author: Joel Gehrke, Washington Examiner

Iranian officials continue to demand wholesale sanctions relief from the United States, a posture that portends a final collapse of talks billed as a “last chance” to rehabilitate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. “From our point of view, the sanctions, which are in contradiction and inconsistent with the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action], need to…

Chinese Communist officials have invested in dozens of ports across Africa, creating a network of economic relationships that could develop into military assets as the U.S.-China competition develops. “They have a very clear plan,” Namrata Hasija, a research fellow at the India-based Centre for China Analysis and Strategy, told the Washington Examiner. “They realize that…

Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping thinks the United States and its allies could deprive China of food in a crisis, an assessment underpinning a frank call for self-sufficiency. Chinese Communist officials have struggled to feed the country for decades, particularly during Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward, which caused a famine that killed an estimated 30…

Germany has suspended the certification of a controversial gas pipeline linking the European power to Russia, according to a senior member of Germany’s newly formed government. “The Federal Network Agency has suspended the certification process due to the existence of clear regulation in European law regarding the energy area on unbundling and other issues of…

Defense Department officials and industry executives are working “to just create artificial fear” of China’s growing nuclear arsenal, according to a senior Senate Democrat who expressed irritation at the phenomenon. “I always hate it when they make out the Chinese or the Russians to be 10 feet tall and we’re midgets,” said Massachusetts Sen. Ed…

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi faces a “last chance” to negotiate a return to the 2015 nuclear deal following an abortive meeting last week that has all but convinced U.S. and European officials that the regime has no sincere intention to rehabilitate the pact. “Negotiations resume tomorrow in Vienna. This is really the last chance for…

Pentagon strategists are preparing for a potential confrontation with China over the fate of Taiwan, senior administration officials told lawmakers. “The PRC is the Department of Defense’s pacing challenge and a Taiwan contingency is the pacing scenario,” Assistant Secretary of Defense Ely Ratner, the lead Pentagon official for the Indo-Pacific, told the Senate Foreign Relations…

A senior Belarusian official raised the prospect of “conflict” with Ukraine one day after President Joe Biden spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to avert a crisis between Russia and Ukraine. “It deployed a group of armed forces, heavy weapons, using helicopters and combat aircraft,” Belarusian Security Council Alexander Volfovich said Wednesday,…

Chinese officials confronted with President Joe Biden’s decision to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are managing the snub by insisting that the Americans were “not even being invited” to the Games. “According to Olympic rules, officials are invited by their respective National Olympic Committee to attend the Olympic Games,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao…

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government is making diplomatic and military preparations for a new invasion of Ukraine in an apparent bid to exert pressure on Kyiv, perhaps even through violence. “All options are plausible from Putin’s view,” a Baltic official told the Washington Examiner, on condition of anonymity. “The current status quo is not satisfactory…