President Donald Trump’s oft-repeated slogan of «America First» is not a substitute phrase for American isolationism but a call to arms for aggressive unilateral military action on a global scale. Unlike the pre-World War II «America Firsters», among whose ranks could be counted Trump’s father, Fred Trump, Donald Trump’s administration and the ranks of his…
This week Khalid Bin Ali Al Humaidan, who directs the General Intelligence Directorate (GID), Saudi Arabia’s primary spy agency, paid an unexpected visit to Jerusalem and Ramallah, although those visits have not been officially confirmed by the Israeli and Palestinian governments. Israeli news outlet Debka reported that Iranian engineers have been working almost nonstop to expand…
The prospects of the fourth round of the intra-Syrian talks slated to begin on Thursday in Geneva are not promising, in terms of achieving a breakthrough, with a change in the international climate toward the Syrian situation, analysts say. TURKEY BACK TO FAVORITE AMERICAN ALLY Analysts believe that with the advent of U.S. President Donald…
By the end of 2015 the BND, the German foreign intelligence service, had grown so concerned that it warned the government about Saudi Arabia’s new Deputy Crown Prince and defence minister, 30-year-old Muhammad bin Salman. “The previous cautious diplomatic stance of older leading members of the royal family,” it wrote, “is being replaced by an…
Only a few months ago, interventionists were demanding a militant response by Washington to what George Soros branded “a humanitarian catastrophe of historic proportions” — the killing of “hundreds of people” by Russian and Syrian government bombing of rebel-held neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo. Leon Wieseltier, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and…
For the last two months, mystery and confusion has shrouded Gen. Raheel Sharif, Pakistan’s retired army chief, over whether he will be the supreme commander of the Saudi-led “Islamic military alliance” created by Riyadh in 2015. News of Sharif’s appointment has been widely criticized in Pakistan, and the drama underscores the friction in the Saudi-Pakistani relationship. Sharif retired…
