Middle East

Europe’s Strategy to Save the Iran Deal

The fate of the Iran nuclear agreement may rest on whether European governments are able to reach a side agreement with the Trump administration on issues that go beyond the provisions of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Iran’s increasingly sophisticated ballistic arsenal has become a major concern for its neighbors and the United […]

Eastern Syria: Overcoming the ‘Original Sin’

By Frederic C. Hof

Celebrations accompanying the forthcoming military defeat of the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) in Syria east of the Euphrates River will fall somewhere between muted and absent. A three-year campaign to neutralize a criminal gang is ending on an abysmally low note: an escalating bilateral crisis between two NATO allies. What happened? Is it […]

Kurds Praise Construction of University in Kobani

By Sardar Mlla Drwish

Educational administrators in Kurdish controlled areas of northern Syria believe education and literacy improves people’s lives and helps to build a better future. The Kurds do not believe that the development of education should be dependent on the current Syrian government’s curricula despite the central government’s formal legal authority in this realm to date.

Why Trump’s Vow to Cut Off Cash to the Palestinians Could Be Dangerous

By Ashish Kumar Sen

At a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 25, US President Donald J. Trump suggested that he would withhold more aid from the Palestinians and that Israel “will pay” for his decision to agree upfront to recognize Jerusalem as its capital. […]

Response to Senator Cory Booker on Syria

By Frederic C. Hof

With the assistance of Yale Professor Oona A. Hathaway, Senator Cory A. Booker (Democrat of New Jersey) has published an op-ed in The New York Times (“A Syria Plan that Breaks the Law”) accusing the Trump administration of wishing to wage war illegally in Syria, in a manner violating both the American Constitution and international […]

After the Ritz Carlton crackdown, what’s next?

By Mohammed Alyahya

Last week it was reported that the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh would start taking reservations again on February 14, after months of serving as a detainment facility for Saudi elites accused of graft. In a dramatic blitz in the middle of a November night in Riyadh, Saudi security forces moved to detain dozens of powerful suspects […]

Erdoğan’s war on the Kurds

By Rachel Ansley

Turkey’s ties with the United States could become casualty of latest offensive Turkey’s military offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria will eventually push the United States to choose between two clashing allies, and “Ankara may not like where US policy ends up,” according to the Atlantic Council’s Aaron Stein. The Turkish operation has deepened […]

January 25: experts weigh in seven years later

By MENASource

We asked several Egypt experts where they think Egypt stands seven years after the January 25, 2011 uprising that led to the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak. A common takeaway has been that Egypt is continuing to regress to its pre-2011 days. EconomyIn the aftermath of the 2011 Revolution, the Egyptian economy went into […]