At least for the time being, the Saudi authorities calculate that the possible benefits from normalized relations with Israel vis-à-vis Washington would not outweigh the possible domestic and regional costs.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureishi has stirred a regional hornet’s nest by challenging Saudi leadership of the Muslim world.
Real and lasting normalization of relations between Arab states and Israel won’t happen unless the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved.
Attitudes across the Arab World have undergone a dramatic change in the past few years and this new political reality must be understood.
Despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s denials, sale of the F-35 to the UAE appears to have been at least tangentially part of the recent Israel-UAE deal on normalizing relations.
It appears that the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative has been scrapped and tensions with Iran will increase.
While the snapback push at the U.N. Security Council will provide Iran hawks with the opportunity to act out a fantasy of killing the Iran nuclear deal, this time for good, the real world appears poised to move on.
Hawkish pro-Israel groups spent big trying to unseat Democratic candidates whom they viewed aren’t sufficiently supportive of Israel, and they lost big — perhaps marking a seismic shift in the domestic politics of U.S. Middle East policy.
House Democrats have introduced a bill that, if widely supported, has the potential to recalibrate regional policies that align more toward American interests.
The Trump administration has said and done little about the draconian measures regional autocrats have taken in response to COVID-19.
The Saudis appear to be abandoning an agreement they made with the Bush administration that they would not pursue enrichment and reprocessing.
The Israel-UAE peace deal provides multiple wins for both countries, and for the U.S. But it could yet deepen the region’s political fault lines.
As the Israeli government continues to deny Palestinians their basic rights, its democracy, and American Jewry’s support for it, are in peril.
The administration thinks it can get the arms ban extension, and much more, by now moving on to trigger snapback of all the pre-JCPOA sanctions.
This is the latest reminder that American diplomacy in the Middle East remains driven mainly by Israeli priorities and US domestic politics.
Tunisia, Libya, and Sudan are all at a turning point and authoritarian forces in the region are working hard to push them away from democracy.
Iran has threatened that it will react severely should the U.S. succeed in extending the arms embargo in violation of the nuclear agreement.
Whether you call it a formal process or not, Palestinians have always known that Israel has been annexing parts of the West Bank.
The path for Israel and the UAE to normalize relations has the potential to get rocky.
The administration is rejecting accountability for its actions and undermining mechanisms, including departmental inspectors general, designed to provide accountability.
Iran is aware of the differences and rivalries between New Delhi and Beijing. Accordingly, Iran will not put all its eggs in the Chinese basket.
