No matter how much some in the United States try to apply to the war in Yemen a Manichean template for seeing the conflict as a simple contest between good guys and bad guys, the complexities of the war keep intruding. Long overlooked has been how the supposedly good side—that is, the one on behalf…
Whether or not he is a purveyor of “alternative facts”, Michael Wolff in Fire and Fury tries to get inside the mind of Donald Trump when working out Washington’s new Middle East foreign policy. In Wolff’s words, this is what the United States president was thinking. “There are basically four players [or at least we can forget…
The UAE’s use of a warped form of Arab Nationalism for countering Turkey and Iran’s perceived leadership of the global Muslim community works in favor of America’s grand strategic interests by creating a trilateral Dubai-Riyadh-Cairo axis for Washington to rely upon in “Leading From Behind” to break the post-Jerusalem trend of multipolar unity spreading throughout…
On 20 December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blasted United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan after bin Zayed retweeted a post accusing Fahreddin Pasha, the famed Ottoman governor who defended Medina against British forces, of having committed crimes against the local population, including stealing their property and the sacred relics of the Prophet…
The Middle East with its continuous struggle of internal and external players for power and control over resources remains one of the most troubled regions on the planet. And this applies to rich countries such as Saudi Arabia and to the periphery: Yemen, Libya and Somalia, states that de facto are “former states”. We will…
Since the beginning of the war against Yemen in March of 2015, Saudi Arabia has received most of the negative press for its war crimes — and rightfully so. Saudi airstrikes have targeted homes, schools, hospitals, markets, and other vital civilian infrastructure, resulting in over 13,000 civilian deaths. Saudi Arabia’s land, sea and air blockade…
