While the military characterized the move as part of a planned withdrawal that reflects the view that Iran now poses less of a threat, the news has prompted debate over the timing of the decision.
The old paradigm that has served as the foundation of the U.S.-Saudi relationship over the previous 75 years — security for Riyadh in exchange for reliable oil supplies for Washington — is no longer as applicable as it once was.
The Saudis have reason to try to distract from what’s going on inside the country.
Internet has in recent years made its way to the long list of foes Iranian hardliners wholeheartedly wish to defeat in preparation for transmuting the country into an “Islamic North Korea.”
The coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout may rewrite the security as well as the political and economic map of the Middle East.
US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell pushed the Germans hard on officially designating Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization.
The pandemic is likely to accelerate changes in the Middle Eastthat were already beginning to happen, or were inherent in existing conditions.
Some have argued that the US should commit to an increasing dependence on petroleum, as well as ushering in a new cycle of overseas interventions propping up an existing, overburdened, and outdated system of U.S. military hegemony.
In order to pile more sanctions on Iran, the U.S. has to be part of the Iran nuclear deal. So now the Trump administration is pretending it never left.
United Against Nuclear Iran has named and shamed companies conducting humanitarian trade with Iran, but now a UANI senior advisor says Iran needs help fighting the coronavirus and stopping its spread.
Given that Israeli annexation of most of the West Bank is now a forgone conclusion, Washington is beginning to catch up to the idea that the two-state solution is no longer viable.
A UN aid and relief agency is ready to offer its support, all it needs is the funding to administer it.
While the world is facing a pandemic, Turkey is expanding its regional influence.
Washington hawks are taking bad faith to a whole new level in their quest for regime change in Tehran.
All historians begin somewhere. Their choice of starting date reveals what they take as significant in explaining how we got to be where we are.
COVID-19 has impacted countries in the region in different ways but their paths forward will be equally challenging.
The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies gives Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo the ammo they need to see to it that Iran sees no relief during the COVID-19 crisis.
Saudi Arabia recently announced a ceasefire in Yemen, and then immediately violated it. What’s next?
European governments should shift their central focus to proactively protecting and bolstering, rather than further squeezing, those Syrian societal forces that are still standing.
Gantz was never going to stop annexation, but his partnership with Netanyahu will now make it easier for the new government to move forward on it in a more effective way.
Posen and Walt concurred that the American military presence in the Middle East greatly outmatches the region’s importance, and that it ought to be promptly reduced.
