US relations with Saudi Arabia and Iran need a rethink, not reset
A real change in U.S.-Saudi and U.S.-Iranian relations, as well as in the U.S.’s overall position in the Middle East, will not be achieved with a modest course correction.
A real change in U.S.-Saudi and U.S.-Iranian relations, as well as in the U.S.’s overall position in the Middle East, will not be achieved with a modest course correction.
Looking ahead, the misery in Yemen is set to increase, possibly exponentially, as COVID-19 keeps on transmitting across the country.
The blockade on Qatar is interfering with Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign on Iran, but his anti-Iran Saudi and Emirati partners won’t budge
Washington will be surprised by more chaos and instability if it does not take the Saudi-Turkish conflict as seriously as the Saudi-Iranian rivalry.
The U.S., guilty by association in the launch of the war in 2015, has failed to fully engage its diplomacy in the service of peace, continuing instead to fuel the fighting with huge arms sales.
When Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan announced austerity measures in May, economists and pundits assumed that was the death knell for trophy projects like NEOM.
Rather than herald the emergence of a new alliance in the region, the recent rapprochement between Iran and Turkey appears to be a marriage of convenience.
Faced by the human and economic ravages of COVID-19 and enduring—if precarious—stalemates in myriad conflict zones, including the Gulf, Yemen, Syria, and Libya, the region’s leaders are likely to keep well back from the brink.
Gulf monarchies’ interest in the eastern Mediterranean has been growing steadily in the past few years, bringing the rivalries between them ever closer to the heart of Europe.
A recent poll found that 80 percent of Americans think the U.S. should help countries around the world with weak healthcare systems fight COVID-19.
Maybe it’s time for everyone to move on.
Saudi, Emirati, and Qatari lobbying money is flooding Washington, and in the process American policy has been knocked down for the count.
“Mohammed bin Zayed was willing to pick up the phone and talk to Bashar al-Assad of Syria, but he isn’t willing to do the same with the Qataris.”
The U.S. has made over $11 billion in major arms offers since the beginning of March, including to repressive regimes like the Philippines, Egypt, and the UAE.
We’re fast approaching the two year anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder and the Trump administration has done nothing to hold Saudi Arabia accountable.