The worst problem with the current US-Iran facedown is that it's a “crisis of evasion”. The adversaries work themselves to the brink of either “It's war,” or “Let's talk.” Then they back down to avoid having to make the tough choice. Neither side is (...)
With French President Emmanuel Macron's announcement on 15 April that he had convinced US President Donald Trump to renounce his previously declared plans to withdraw from Syria as soon as possible, two interrelated questions loomed.
The first is (...)
With French President Emmanuel Macron's announcement on 15 April that he had convinced US President Donald Trump to renounce his previously declared plans to withdraw from Syria as soon as possible, two interrelated questions loomed.
The first is (...)
The Qatari revolt against the established principles of mutual relations within the framework of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), as manifested in its actions following the US president's visit to Riyadh and the summit meetings in which Qatar (...)
Operation Decisive Storm that has pitted a 10-country coalition against Houthi militias in Yemen supported at home by armed forces loyal to deposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh and abroad by various regional parties, most saliently Iran and its Arab (...)
King Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz, who passed away on 23 January, not only served as a crucial keel in Saudi Arabia, with its various internal contradictions and conflicts, but also was a keystone in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
The GCC was (...)
If 2011 was the year of Arab revolutions and uprisings in many Arab countries and 2012 and 2013 were years of testing the results and repercussions of those revolutions, then 2014 was the year of warning. It was a very stern one. It said that the (...)
Regional and international powers are working to create a coalition to combat terrorism, specifically the Islamic State (IS), as set out by UN Security Council Resolution 2170. The Syrian and Iranian regimes are moving in this direction, and Egypt, (...)
Hatem Al-Suleiman, head of the Tribes Revolutionary Council in Iraq, a local group, has lent his weight to the charge levelled by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki that the Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia in particular have been responsible for (...)
In spite of the hopes raised by the agreement on a “mechanism for the implementation of the Riyadh document” reached by the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members in their meeting on a military base near the Saudi capital on 17 April 2014, (...)
Since its inception on 25 May 1981, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has encountered difficult challenges that were instrumental in obstructing the realisation of unity, a goal that remained an aspiration of GCC members even if it had not been (...)
The decision to transform Yemen into a federal state consisting of six regions was based on the recommendations of the regions committee, a presidential panel formed following the conclusion of the National Dialogue Conference on 25 January (...)
Yemen, like many of the other countries of the Arab Spring, appears to be fated to a period of extended instability, the worst aspect of which is that the effects of foreign intervention and foreign interests far outweigh the effects of internal (...)
‘We are with the Arab Spring but we are not with this spring of violence, war, destruction and killing. This is turning to winter'
— Patriarch Beshara Al-Rai
Although the revolutionary wave that has swept many Arab countries has not yet received (...)
Since returning to power after the fall of the Ehud Olmert government in early 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been persistent in his attempts to force his vision of the Middle East on Washington, and this has brought him to (...)
When Iranian President Hassan Rouhani assumed office 4 August, he assumed the responsibility — for which he was elected — for reviving the Iranian reform project and rehabilitating the moderate political trend in Iran. Considerable hopes were vested (...)
Mohamed Said Idris* argues that Iran's favourite tactic of procrastination has landed it in hot water
Iran is perhaps facing the toughest challenge yet to its favoured policy for achieving its strategic goals regarding its nuclear programme, namely (...)
After the Baluchistan attacks, Iran faces two options -- heightened confrontation or accommodation, argues Mohamed Said Idris
Tehran's angry reaction to the suicide bombing attack by the Sunni Jund Ansar Allah (Soldiers of God) insurgent group at (...)
After the Baluchistan attacks, Iran faces two options heightened confrontation or accommodation, argues Mohammed Said Idris
Tehran's heavy-handed reaction to the suicide bombing attack by the Sunni Jundullah (Soldiers of God) insurgent group at (...)