Nine years after his death, residents in the chaos-wracked country's capital have grown to miss the longtime leader as the frustrations of daily life mount.
The claim that Iran is the main “sponsor of terrorism” is one that has become a cliché from Washington, D.C., to Riyadh. It has become so common that no evidence is needed to prove it.
The Management of Savagery: How America’s National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump by Max Blumenthal, Verso Books (2019)
There is a new ménage-à-quatre in the region, bringing Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United States ever closer. And...an unexpected fifth player lurking in the shadows: Russia.
This piece was originally written for Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) in early February 2018 before the appointments of Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State and John Bolton as National Security Advisor. These appointments render an already alarming situation even worse.
Following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress last week the tension between the Republican-dominated Congress and President Barack Obama has reached a near constitutional crisis. While this crisis may subside, the more lasting impact of these developments may well be a change in relationship between the Israeli government, the Republican Party, and the traditionally bipartisan U.S. consensus towards Israel and wider Middle Eastern issues.
In some ways the Syrian civil war resembles a proxy chess match between supporters of the Bashar al-Assad regime— Iran, Iraq, Russia and China—and its opponents— Turkey, the oil monarchies, the U.S., Britain and France. But the current conflict only resembles chess if the game is played with multiple sides, backstabbing allies, and conflicting agendas.
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