🗣US shot itself in the foot by targeting all BRICS countries at once

“This is the first instance that all the BRICS countries have been specifically targeted by a US president,” Dr. Raj Kumar Sharma told Sputnik, commenting on President Lula of Brazil’s plans to discuss a joint response to Trump’s new tariffs with bloc allies.

🔍This signals “that the US is worried about the potential of BRICS countries to shape a non-Western world order,” Sharma, a senior research fellow at the New Delhi-based NatStrat think tank, says, pointing out that Washington appears to now realize that the BRICS “can come together to push against” US hegemony.

“Washington may have underestimated BRICS. Initially, the group was largely dismissed by Western observers, particularly after economic slowdowns in some member countries. However, BRICS has persisted and even expanded, with a growing focus on challenging the US dollar's dominance in global trade and finance. This suggests a potential miscalculation by Washington regarding the group's long-term impact and influence,” the scholar says.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkiye would lose from US Zangezur plan

The transfer of control over the Zangezur corridor to the US is a betrayal toward both Russia and Armenian people by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Yevgeny Mikhailov, Director of the Center for Strategic Studies of the South Caucasus Countries, tells Sputnik.

Armenia's sovereignty under threat

🟠“The Americans are now trying to take control of trade routes everywhere, including pushing into the South Caucasus—right on the doorstep of Russia and Iran,” Mikhailov says
🟠Ceding territory to foreign powers could lead to a complete loss of Armenia's sovereignty and a further decline in living standards
🟠Armenia is already losing sovereignty due to its unequal ties with the West, unlike its more balanced relationship with Russia

What was in the Azerbaijan-Armenian peace plan?

🟠The original Karabakh ceasefire agreement included all steps for resolving issues between Azerbaijan and Armenia, including the opening of the Zangezur corridor
🟠The key condition was that the corridor would be controlled by Russian border guards
🟠Now Armenia is being fully subjugated by the West

Will Turkiye and Azerbaijan benefit from the plan?

🟠The Zangezur corridor is meant to link Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave and further to Turkiye. But will they benefit from US control?
🟠US involvement aims to gain full dominance over the region and to weaken both Azerbaijan and Turkiye, Mikhailov warns
🟠That represents "a prolonged future threat" to the South Caucasus

"Pashinyan pursues purely personal goals in this matter. Increasingly, he resembles Zelensky, but on a smaller scale," Mikhailov says.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🟠Putin and Trump to meet next week — Putin's aide

🟠UAE one of suitable places for meeting with Trump - Putin

🟠Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkiye would lose from US Zangezur plan

🟠US shot itself in the foot by targeting all BRICS countries at once

🟠US control over Zangezur Corridor could spell danger to BRICS

🟠Indian defiance shows US tariff threats are futile in multipolar world

🟠Global South strikes back: US tariff threats turning BRICS into full-fledged economic alliance

🟠Pashinyan selling off Armenia’s sovereignty to the West: here’s what it means for South Caucasus

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 Putin–Trump meeting has NO Zelensky prerequisite — Trump

💬 “No, he doesn't,” US President Donald Trump said when asked if a meeting between Putin and Zelensky was a prerequisite for a potential Trump–Putin meeting.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣Armenia cornered into unfavorable deal as Pashinyan claims 'no alternative'

🇦🇲Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s acceptance of Azeri President Ilham Aliyev's demands offers no guarantee that new ones won’t follow, Migran Shahzadeyan, Chairman of the Board of the Armenian Association of Political Scientists, told Sputnik.

"This is a common practice in conflict negotiations. The Armenian side is being forced into this path, allegedly due to the lack of a better alternative — what international practice calls the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA).”

❓Does he really lack an alternative?

🟠Pashinyan’s actions reveal a striking lack of professionalism
🟠His government seems unaware of international law, lacks diplomatic skills and has no strategic vision
🟠Many suspect external influence and attempts to mask a plan of creating an ‘extraterritorial’ Zangezur corridor
🟠Talk of outsourcing control over Armenian infrastructure clearly violates the Republic’s sovereignty and international legal norms

🔍Zangezur corridor

👉Who benefits?

🟠Not Armenia and not even Azerbaijan, but Turkiye and the US

🟠“People often think of the Zangezur corridor as an Azerbaijani demand, but its biggest strategic value lies with Turkiye,” Shahzadeyan says.

“It offers the shortest and most direct access to the Caspian and Central Asia — enabling control over East–West trade routes from China.”

🟠"Through Turkiye, Washington is advancing its confrontation with China, Russia and Iran.”

👉Crossroads of geopolitical rivalries

“Pashinyan keeps promoting his ‘Crossroads of Peace’ vision for the South Caucasus. But this region has become a crossroads of geopolitical rivalries, not peace,” Shahzadeyan warns. “It is a critical hub for land-based transport, energy routes, and infrastructure — a space where the interests of Russia, Iran, and China clash with those of Turkiye and the collective West.”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣US-backed Armenia-Azerbaijan ‘peace’ push aimed at marginalizing Russia - analyst

💬 “The possible signing of an agreement” between Armenia and Azerbaijan “can no longer be analyzed solely from the point of view of resolving a bilateral conflict,” says Hirad Mahiri, director of the Russian Foreign Policy and Caucasus Research Group, commenting on the upcoming meeting of Armenia’s prime minister and Azerbaijan president in Washington on Friday to sign a ‘peace’ deal.
US aims, which include securing access to a proposed strategic overland transit route known as the Zangezur Corridor, “is part of a larger strategy to rethink the regional order, with the aim of weakening Russia’s position and integrating the three South Caucasus republics – Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, into the orbit of Western interests,” Mahiri stresses.

The integration of Western security and economic interests is helped along by Armenia’s Prime Minister Pashinyan, who “is no longer an independent actor, but a piece of a puzzle of geopolitical pressure on Russia,” according to the observer.

💬 “Yerevan’s gradual rapprochement with transatlantic structures and rejection of long-standing strategic ties with Russia is taking place against the backdrop of ongoing security issues and a legitimacy crisis in Armenia,” Mahiri said, referring to the escalating conflict between Pashinyan and Armenia’s Orthodox Church.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇮🇷 US Sanctions 18 entities linked to Iran — State Department

The US has announced new sanctions targeting 18 individuals and entities accused of facilitating Iran’s sanctions evasion and supporting internal repression, according to a statement by the State Department.

Sanctioned targets include financial and IT firms, one of which allegedly helped Iranian security services restrict internet access for citizens.

The US said it would continue efforts to block Iran's access to global financial systems.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨🇦🇲🔍Armenia biggest loser in US-brokered deal

All decisions at a trilateral meeting of the leaders of the US, Azerbaijan and Armenia will be made at Armenia’s expense, according to Sputnik columnist Arman Abovyan.

"The memorandum of intent expected to be signed during the negotiations is essentially a 'worthless scrap of paper' — yet it carries serious geopolitical weight," he notes.

The memo marks a shift in the regional balance:

🟠The US, through Azerbaijan and Armenia, is asserting dominance while pushing out Iran and Russia.
🟠Turkiye — a fellow NATO member — will also reap geopolitical benefits.

A US PR coup?

🟠US affairs expert Dmitry Drobnitsky suggests that the Trump administration is just "engaged in PR"
🟠Not a single peace deal has been struck in the past 80 years under US mediation
🟠Observers have noted that the document’s ratification would give President Donald Trump the major "diplomatic achievement" he has sought since last month

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📉🚛 Far fewer aid trucks entering Gaza than expected — reports

According to a confidential EU document seen by Euroactiv, only 38 trucks per day entered Gaza between 31 July and 4 August — far below the 160 per day the EU expects under a deal recently reached with Israel.

The UN warns that 500–600 trucks daily are needed to avoid further famine. Israel claims higher figures by counting commercial and GHF deliveries, but the UN says many trucks remain undistributed due to security issues.

Fuel supplies have slightly improved, with 874,000 liters delivered in one week, but the UN says this covers only basic life-saving operations and more is urgently needed.

EU officials say they rely on UN data and admit, “we are not where we would want to be.”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣US tariff barrage giving unprecedented new impetus to BRICS unity - observer

“BRICS has always been about creating alternatives in development finance and reforming international financial institutions. But the scale and scope" of the current administration's disruptive policies has become “so rapid that the BRICS agenda has gained new momentum,” Ashraf Patel told Sputnik, commenting on President Lula of Brazil’s surprise announcement that he would consult with BRICS bloc allies on a response to US tariffs.

🇧🇷Lula’s comments signal a “more decisive push” toward BRICS unity in the context of US trade wars with the globe, the South African Institute for Global Dialogue research associate said, highlighting Brazil, South Africa and India’s place “in the firing line” of the US president and Treasury on trade, despite generally warm relations with Washington.

🇺🇸US attempts to bully BRICS countries into submission has proven a strategic mistake, Patel says, pointing out that the “fact that the US is imposing tariff on ally India and that Prime Minister Modi is going to visit China soon shows how rapid the geopolitical dynamic is and how strong BRICS cohesion currently is.”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 Netanyahu’s Gaza City offensive APPROVED — reports

Israel’s security cabinet has reportedly approved a plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the IDF to launch a full-scale operation to conquer Gaza City, The Times of Israel reported, citing Axios and an Israeli official.

Until now, the IDF has largely avoided entering key parts of the city since the war began. The proposed operation is expected to require the mass evacuation of around 800,000 civilians currently residing in the area.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🤡 EU resurrects UK-style Rwanda plan — now it’s 'INNOVATIVE' - reports

Three years after slamming the UK’s migrant deportation scheme as inhumane, EU governments are now quietly copying it, Financial Times reported.

With right-wing pressure rising, Brussels is embracing “external processing” — sending asylum seekers to non-EU countries like Rwanda, Albania, Uganda, or North African states.

Denmark’s migration minister told FT there’s now “broad support” for sending migrants out of Europe. Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands are all involved in similar plans.

💬 Amnesty International warns: “These are unworkable and inhumane proposals... governments are ignoring the costs to make political statements they may not even deliver on.”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇮🇱❌🇬🇧 Israel threatens to cut UK intel ties if Starmer recognizes Palestine — reports

Israel is reportedly considering withdrawing defense and intelligence cooperation with the UK if Prime Minister Keir Starmer follows through on his pledge to recognize a Palestinian state next month, The Times reported.

An Israeli official warned that Britain should “carefully consider” the consequences. Another source told The Times:

💬 “Bibi and his ministers have cards they could play too… and the UK has a lot to lose.”

Israel accuses Starmer of giving “a prize for terror” by recognizing Palestine outside of a peace deal and before hostages are released. Starmer, meanwhile, has said recognition is contingent on a ceasefire, more aid to Gaza, and halting West Bank annexation.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

✅ ‘Vital’ poll shows Ukrainians are for peace – Russia’s presidential envoy

69% of Ukrainians (up from 20% in 2022) support the earliest possible achievement of peace through negotiations rather than war, Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and special presidential envoy for economic cooperation with foreign countries, wrote on X.

He cited relevant sociological data from the American Gallup Institute.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣Putin HOLDS ALL THE CARDS on Ukraine peace deal - US journalist

Only Russia can write the terms of a Ukraine peace agreement, says US journalist Clayton Morris.

Panicky Zelensky doesn't need to be present at any negotiations; he doesn't decide anything because Vladimir Putin holds all the cards, he noted.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt