America may “be back” for most of the world, but for the Middle East the only thing it is “back” to, is Obama’s “soft power” touch in the region. GCC countries have so much to learn from Assad on how to survive an uprising and how to stay in power. But what he can really…
During a three-day visit to Riyadh in early May, the prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan together with his top military official Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed Islamabad’s decision to revive the strategic alliance between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Khan’s meeting with Saudi crown prince Muhammad bin Salman Al Saud resulted in a number of agreements getting…
The Biden effect is shaking up the Middle East and forcing foes to talk to one another. But where it’s all heading is even more exciting for Saudi Arabia and Iran. Unimaginable reconciliations are taking place across the entire region, since Joe Biden was sworn into office and indicated that he wasn’t going to tolerate…
It took Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman three years and six months to come to the same conclusion that some of us reached days into the blockade of Qatar: that it was doomed to failure. The project to silence the voice of an independent neighbour was doomed the moment that then-US defence secretary James…
The Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and the Institute for Iran-Eurasia Studies (IRAS) published a joint report addressing their nations’ differences over Syria which finally breaks the taboo about openly discussing them and will hopefully inspire more regular expert interactions on these important issues. Breaking The Taboo It had hitherto been taboo for many in…
The professed rationale for the recent Abraham Accords, so-called “peace deals” signed with Israel by the UAE and Bahrain, was to stymie Israeli efforts to annex swaths of the West Bank. The aim was supposedly to neutralise another “peace” plan – one issued early this year by US President Donald Trump’s administration – that approved…
