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The latest pieces from MENASource:


MENASource

Sep 19, 2025

How Israel’s strike on Doha is forcing a Gulf security reckoning

By
Giorgio Cafiero

The Gulf monarchies have displayed strong unity at a time when rethinking twenty-first-century Gulf security is no longer optional.

Israel
Middle East


MENASource

Sep 19, 2025

Snapback sanctions threaten to further derail Iran nuclear deal hopes

By
Rob Macaire

Now would be the best time for the West to negotiate a deal with Iran—but snapback sanctions threaten a derailing into further confrontation.

Economic Sanctions
Iran


MENASource

Sep 18, 2025

Libya’s stalled transition: When domestic spoilers meet foreign interests

By
Luis Aleman and Karim Mezran

Libya’s stalled transition has not happened by chance; it has been deliberately engineered into paralysis by both domestic spoilers and foreign powers.

Libya
Middle East

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Through our Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, the Atlantic Council works with allies and partners in Europe and the wider Middle East to protect US interests, build peace and security, and unlock the human potential of the region.

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Content

IranSource

Feb 8, 2019

Iran’s Revolution, 40 Years On: Israel’s Reverse Periphery Doctrine

By Natan Sachs

Iranian-Israeli hostility is actually quite odd. Tehran is well over a thousand miles from Jerusalem. The two countries do not border each other. They have no major bilateral claims toward one another. Whereas large Arab neighbors of Iran, like Iraq or Saudi Arabia, might be considered its natural competitors, Israel cannot. Even fans of the […]

Iran Israel

In the News

Feb 7, 2019

Wald Joins Chatham House to Discuss the Future of Saudi Arabia’s Economy

By Ellen Wald

Watch the full discussion here

Saudi Arabia

IranSource

Feb 6, 2019

Why Assad’s alliance with Iran and Hezbollah will endure

By Randa Slim

The Tehran-Damascus-Hezbollah trilateral partnership has been decades in the making. It pre-dates the Syrian civil war, has strengthened as a result of the war and will likely endure in the post-war years. After the Iranian revolution in 1979, shared enmity of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Israel and the United States brought Damascus and Tehran together. […]

Syria

In the News

Feb 6, 2019

Slavin Quoted in USA Today on Trump’s Address on Foreign Policy in State of the Union

By Barbara Slavin

Read the full article here

Iran

IranSource

Feb 6, 2019

A pro-active new US policy toward Iran

By Barbara Slavin

With the advent of another presidential election cycle in the United States, many US and foreign politicians and policy advocates have already begun thinking about recommendations for the next occupant of the White House. In both domestic and foreign affairs, it will not be sufficient to simply revisit decisions made by President Donald Trump but […]

Iran

IranSource

Feb 6, 2019

The iron and depressing laws of US-Iran relations

By John Limbert

Among the unalterable “laws of the Medes and the Persians” that have ruled US-Iran relations for decades are the following: Everything takes longer than you think. Everything is harder than you think. Whenever you begin to make progress, some bad fortune or stupidity will screw up everything. The first two are obvious. In the last […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Feb 5, 2019

Exit interview: EU’s envoy to Washington on navigating challenges in the transatlantic relationship

By Ashish Kumar Sen and David A. Wemer

David O’Sullivan, the European Union’s ambassador to the United States, wraps up his time in Washington at the end of February. The last two years of his tenure have been challenging ones for the transatlantic relationship. That challenge mainly comes from US President Donald J. Trump who once described the EU as a “foe.” In […]

European Union International Organizations

In the News

Feb 5, 2019

Kadhim Joins PBS to Discuss Trump’s Remarks on US Troops in Iraq to “Watch Iran”

By Abbas Kadhim

Watch the full discussion here

Iraq

IranSource

Feb 4, 2019

As Iranian youth evolve, so do their means of communicating

By Holly Dagres

When I moved to Tehran twenty years ago, I wore a black manteau that stretched to my ankles and a headscarf pulled down to my forehead. By the time I graduated high school in 2005, my highlighted fuchsia hair stuck out like tentacles from a white shawl, and a matching manteau barely covered my rear. Such social changes, as […]

Iran Youth

IranSource

Feb 4, 2019

Iran and the women’s question

By Haleh Esfandiari

When it comes to women and the Islamic Republic, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” For forty years, women have resisted the Islamic Republic’s attempt to deny them rights previously won. They have waged a war—on the streets, in social media and even in the privacy of their homes—for equality and against the regime’s […]

Iran
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