Last week, Reuters reported that, should Joe Biden win the presidency in 2020, he would be willing to either reenter the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — the Iran nuclear deal — or renegotiate a conciliatory deal with…
Last week’s ceasefire in Libya might have seemed almost inconceivable just a few months ago. Yet hard work remains to translate this positive step into something more durable—both for Libyans most affected by the fighting and for stability in a…
President Trump rightly heralded recent peace agreements Israel made with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain as “the dawn of a new Middle East.” However, with Washington possibly selling advanced F-35 aircraft to the UAE in the bargain, these landmark…
“Surrender.” That’s the only option Iranian President Hassan Rouhani offered America during his (now forgotten) virtual address to the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) last month. Based on his bombastic rhetoric, Rouhani clearly expects Washington to play the…
“The submarines question” is really three different questions: 1. Does Israel need a sixth submarine? 2. The matter of Israel’s agreement to sell a submarine to Egypt. 3. Who needs nine submarines? I “encountered” the sixth submarine in April 2011…
Last month, Kuwaiti ruler Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah passed away at the age of 91. As the Kuwaitis grieve his passing, his successor, 83-year-old Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Saba, will face novel challenges and blessings his half-brother did not as Kuwait’s primary foreign…
It will take time before we fully understand the opportunities and challenges presented by the recent signing of the Abraham Accords. However, most can agree that regional alliances will be altered. Middle Eastern nations will have to rethink their relationships…
On Oct. 14, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proposed that Russian peacekeepers or observers should be deployed to halt the current conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which broke out into open hostilities in late September. Yet, there’s good reason for the West to…
Qatar has formally requested to acquire America’s most advanced fighter aircraft, the F-35 stealth combat jet, according to Reuters. This raises the serious question of why Qatar should ever possess such a capable weapons system in the first place. The…
Last Thursday, the Trump administration slapped new sanctions on eighteen Iranian banks, signaling the latest move in its “maximum pressure” campaign against the Iranian regime. The most recent round of sanctions, occurring just a day before the UN arms embargo…