middle east

US policy versus Iran has reached new heights of desperation and new lows in terms of undermining international law and norms. 

Coercive might and money may be all that matter in Manhattan real estate. But they are bound to sink the president’s take-all-you-want “deal of the century” for Israel.
Patrick LAWRENCE

Conversations | January 26, 2020 Former Newsweek journalist Tareq Haddad speaks to Eva Bartlett, an award-winning independent journalist and activist. They discuss Eva’s early history, including her early days in Gaza and the West Bank, and how she transitioned into journalism in addition to addressing the large backlash and smears she faced. Please follow Eva’s […]

News this Thursday of Ayatollah Sistani’s health issues very much put in focus the matter of his succession, and maybe more pertinently yet, Iraq’s ability to weather such a catastrophic loss to the integrity of its institutions.

By Alastair Crooke | Strategic Culture Foundation | February 3, 2020 President Trump’s ‘deal of the century’ has been published this week. Mostly, it has been examined as a purely political project – whether in terms of the domestic needs of Trump and Netanyahu, or as a maximum squeeze on Palestinians, which may, or may […]

Former Israeli army General Gadi Eisenkot has gone on record affirming allegations that Israel has directly provided weapons to Syrian rebels.

Daniel McADAMS
There is a real danger for foreign policy advisors and analysts – and especially those they serve – when they are in a bubble, an echo chamber, and all of their conclusions are based on faulty inputs. Needless to say it’s even worse when they believe they can create their own reality and invent outcomes out of whole cloth.
Things seldom go as planned in these circumstances.

Over the last few months, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its Russian allies have been advancing into the heart of Idlib province – the last remaining terrorist stronghold in Syria. Not everyone is happy about the effort by Damascus to retake is own territorial areas in the north, not least of all Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is now threatening the SAA and its allies with military force if they continue with operations to dislodge Turkish and US-backed terrorist forces currently holed up in Idlib, and neighboring Afrin.

President Trump’s ‘deal of the century’ has been published this week. Mostly, it has been examined as a purely political project – whether in terms of the domestic needs of Trump and Netanyahu, or as a maximum squeeze on Palestinians, which may, or may not, work. But there is another (implicit) dimension, lying – a little out of sight – behind these explicit politics.