Iran

Iran wants euro payment for new and outstanding oil sales in a bid to cut reliance on the US dollar. After the removal of sanctions Tehran also plans to recover some of its previously frozen assets in euros. Sputnik news reports: Iran has turned away from the US dollar in oil trade and is denominating in euros all new and outstanding oil contracts with companies, including French oil and gas giant Total, Spanish refiner Cepsa and Litasco, the trading arm of Russia’s Lukoil, a source at National Iranian Oil Co told Reuters.

Submitted by Dromeus Capital

Tampering with free markets is rarely successful, including in foreign currency exchanges—and The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may be the next nation to discover the limits of sovereign power. The oilexporting monarchy is burning up reserves in an expensive effort freeze a dated, 31-year-old currency peg of 3.75 Saudi riyals to the strengthening U.S. dollar.

Back in October, we previewed the “promised” battle for Aleppo, Syria’s largest city prior to the war.

By the time Russia began constructing an air base at Latakia, the city - which is immensely important both from a strategic and psychological perspective - was controlled by a hodgepodge of rebels and militants including al-Qaeda, the Free Syrian Army, and ISIS.

On Monday I gave some reasons why foreign policy realists might not be interested in supporting Donald Trump. Leon Hadar delves deeper into the question today and concludes that Trump isn’t a realist:

If Donald Trump has distanced himself from some of the positions held by two of the powerful wings of the conservative movement—free marketeers and evangelical Christians—he has provoked a fury among members of the third GOP wing, the neoconservatives, who for all practical purposes dominate the party’s foreign policy thinking.