Iran test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles Wednesday during war games that officials said aimed to show the country can retaliate against any U.S. and Israeli attack, state television reported.
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The Christian Science Monitor surveys the usual experts, and declares that a U.S. attack on Iran is “not coming soon.” So does that mean the Israelis might bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities on their own? They might be able to pull off a preventive strike. But Robert Kaplan, writing for the Atlantic, doesn’t think the Israelis [...]

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IRAN has issued a strident warning that it would “set on fire” Israel and target the US navy in the Persian Gulf as its first response to any American attack over its nuclear programme.
Rising tension in the area where Iran and the United States are both carrying out military exercises have contributed to driving oil [...]

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A building frenzy is raging in Asia, Russia and on the Persian Gulf. And cities like London and New York don’t have the money to compete. Will Western urban landscapes soon look outdated? By Ulrike Knöfel, Frank Hornig and Bernhard Zand more…

Photo Gallery: The East’s New Skylines
The Rise of Dubai: A Queue in the Sand
Unveiling [...]

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The top U.S. Navy official in the Persian Gulf warned in an interview with ABC News that war with Iran would be “pretty disastrous,” with “echoes and aftershocks” reverberating throughout the region.
“Nobody I’ve spoken to suggests that going to war with Iran is a good thing,” Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff told ABC News. “The preferred [...]

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Is there any end to Chinese ambitions in Asia? China wishes to dominate Asia with blockades, blockages, military diplomacy and political Machiavellism.
China’s building of the port of Gwadar at the mouth of the Persian Gulf in fact is meant to blockade the oil supplies of the world. Its military diplomacy is on display at the [...]

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The number of oil-producer-based conflicts is likely to grow in the future as stratospheric prices of crude oil push more countries in the developing world to produce oil and gas. In 2001, the Bush administration’s energy task force hailed the emergence of new producers as a chance for the United States to diversify the sources [...]

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Surely only good can come from so much cash? Hardly. In the 1970s the Gulf’s money was a disaster for Latin America, for, recycled through Western banks, it caused a decade-long debt crisis. The Gulf itself suffered by inflicting stagflation on the West, thus causing a 20-year-long slump in oil prices. They built white elephants [...]

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SIX years ago, Dion Mavath, an Australian D.J., flew to Dubai to take up residency at an upstart local nightclub. Dubai, a fledgling metropolis, was still mostly known as an airport hub and a shipping port, and the local night-life scene, he quickly found, was nearly as sterile and undistinguished as the flat Middle Eastern [...]

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An unprecedented boom is changing the region—and echoing far past its borders.
Aug. 6, 2007 issue - We all know the headlines by now: the Middle East is burning, right? So it seems, as Palestinians and Iraqis wage civil war, Lebanon seethes, Syria and Israel trade barbs and Iran spits defiance. Yet beyond the smoke a [...]

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