Current Iraqi rage against the burning of a Quran in Sweden and in Denmark violates both liberty and Islamic teachings — and shows that freedom of expression is sometimes globally curtailed for fear…
Browsing: Middle East
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s two key appointments are new foreign minister and former intelligence chief, Hakan Fidan; and the newly-appointed intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalın, also…
A curious feature (or maybe a bug) of the war in Ukraine has been the limited use of airpower on both sides. Former U.S. Air Force…
All as usual for my arrival, once more, at the Teheran Imam Khomeini Airport, or almost! As always, security measures are strict, yet passport stamping and…
Iran’s judiciary chief is pushing to override parliamentary approval on the upcoming hijab bill. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei says there is a law to deal with ‘social…
(US State Secretary Antony J. Blinken meets with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on June 7, 2023. Despite Blinken’s visit, differences…
(A map from Kuwait’s oil ministry showing the Arash/Durra (Dorra) oil and gas field near the tip of the Persian Gulf.) Kuwait insists a disputed…
His System of rule simply can’t go on much longer ` The Scarlet Sails festival is one of Russia’s most popular holidays. A celebration of…
The country was in a frenzy last week due to the protest by Druze in the Golan Heights against the start of the construction of a…
Members of the Wagner Group look from a military vehicle with the sign “Brother” in Rostov-on-Don late on Saturday. (Photo by Roman Romokhov/AFP via Getty Images)…
A former senior intelligence official and a founder of the ministry of intelligence, says Iran was once a semi-democracy but it has turned into a non-democracy. …
The Russian president was forced to make peace with Yevgeny Prigozhin, whom he described as a ‘traitor,’ in a Russia he described as on the brink…
Kasparov tells Kyiv Post: “Putin was right by invoking 1917 [in his TV address on June 24]. This is clearly a 1917 situation. The war is not over…
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian (R) while attending for speaking with media with his Saudi counterpart Faisal Bin Farhan, after an official meeting in Tehran’s…
Iranian academic Mohsen Renani says, “Iran’s government is unable to reform itself” to adapt to the needs of a modern society, and it is too weak…
By Vazha Tavberidze Print Political consultant Abbas Gallyamov used to be one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speechwriters. In an interview with RFE/RL’s Georgian…
Iran’s hardliner Paydari Party has dismissed long-time conservative figure Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel’s leadership of an umbrella group for a handshake with a moderate. Paydari’s break with…
All wars feature their own narratives. These are the ways that belligerents seek to portray themselves to outsiders and to themselves. The brutal civil war between…
A recent essay touting a “one-state” approach to Israel-Palestinian issues is more about eliminating the world’s only Jewish state than offering real solutions to complex regional…
(Abolqassem Delfi, former senior foreign ministry official and ambassador to France) * A former Iranian diplomat says Tehran has gained little from a Chinese-brokered deal to…
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, US President Nixon, and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Oval office on November 1, 1973. It is believed Nixon…
(An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test at 1:13 a.m. Pacific Time, Oct. 2, 2019, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.…
Will this week’s Arab summit breath new life into a Saudi-Syrian understanding over Lebanon? One politician who will be closely watching the Arab League…
Istanbul- Recent Polls Suggest Erdogan’s Imminent Defeat in the First Round of Elections According to the projections of the nation’s foremost polling organizations, President Recep…
A former Iranian diplomat says Tehran may have concluded that it should replace idealism with pragmatism to end the long-standing impasse in its foreign policy. At…
Exactly one hundred years after the birth of the Soviet Union on December 30, 1922, we could well be witnessing its second collapse. Putin’s attempt to…
Who Disbanded Iraq’s Army and De-Baathified Its Bureaucracy? Print this article Send by email Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Get a…
Iraqis find themselves under censorship and tyranny of Islamist Iran There is one country in the world that celebrates the American war to topple Saddam Hussain:…
In what was seen as an escalation by the Sudanese regular armed forces (SAF), units belonging to the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) poured into the…
BY JAY LOSCHKY STORY HIGHLIGHTS Saudi Arabia more popular in all 13 Muslim-majority countries surveyed Iran deeply unpopular everywhere except Pakistan Turks strongly disapprove of Saudi…
In May 2021, The Economist magazine declared Taiwan to be the most dangerous place in the world. That could seem like an exaggeration to those who…
Editor’s Note:This article is drawn from the inaugural James N. Mattis Lecture at the American Academy in Berlin, delivered by Jeffrey Feltman on February 22, 2023.…
ROME – By the time he marked a decade at the pinnacle of power, it was clear that under this maverick leader, nothing would ever be…
Brief Analysis In a climate where many clerics are unhappy about their situation and some are losing faith in the Islamic Republic, the purported minutes of…
Is the leadership in Iran trying to change course or are we witnessing a new tactic? The signals coming from Tehran make both assumptions plausible.…
UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, Dr. Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, speaks during CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston, Texas on March 6, 2023. Dr.…
Having been to the terrible Auschwitz camp to bear witness to the sufferings of the Jewish people, I salute the unbelievably courageos stories of people like…
it’s being said that Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin, and the Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Gallagher, feel uncomfortable with the intransigent line of the Argentine pontiff…
In February 2022, when the war in Ukraine erupted, retired Russian Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov voiced his extreme misgivings. He claimed that the war would be very…
The vow of “never again” taken by virtually all nations after the Second World War remains unfulfilled. I recently left Cairo with a team…
Western countries have finally approved deliveries of dozens of Abrams, Leopard 2 and Challenger tanks to Ukraine. Deliveries of combat aircraft and long-range ATACMS missiles remain…
Russian drone manufacturer, established in same city as visited by Iranian drone delegation, also advertises Western drone components By David Albright, Sarah Burkhard, and…
For the past five months of unrest, the largest Sunni Mosque in Iran, the Grand Makki Mosque – founded as part of the Jamiat Darul Uloom…
A prominent Iranian economist in a letter meant to reach Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said that the Islamic Republic is in the final stage of…
( J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Los Alamos Laboratory where the atomic bomb was designed, and Manhattan Project director Leslie Groves at ground zero of…
(Photo: The man in a white robe waving to the crowd is late Saudi King Faisal on his visit to Jerusalem in 1966. The man in…
A recent survey of Iranian public opinion suggests that the lack of confidence in a Middle Eastern regime is starkest in Iran, although crisis-wracked Lebanon, Egypt,…
(Note: This piece was written before the terrorist attack in Jerusalem on January 27.) “I expect we’ll see an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia…
The regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin is living on borrowed time. The tide of history is turning, and everything from Ukraine’s advances on the battlefield…
BY BRAD DRESS A war games simulation of a full-scale Chinese invasion of the self-governing island nation of Taiwan predicts “heavy losses” for all parties likely to…