The President was supposed to arrive for his two-day state visit to the U.K. on the morning of May 24. Instead, a plume of volcanic ash from Iceland forced a change of plan that saw POTUS curtail his trip to his ancestral homeland, Ireland, and head for London before Air Force One could be grounded. As officials scrambled to find him a …
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Why Obama’s Mideast Speech is For Domestic, Not Arab Consumption
The question among Middle East watchers over Thursday’s planned speech on the Arab Spring by President Obama has been this: Why would he address the Arab world at a moment when his policies have little hope of reversing diminished U.S. standing? After all, the Arab consensus views Obama has having failed miserably to deliver on the …
The Saudi-Iranian Cold War: Is This the Future of the Middle East?
It’s easy to overlook the killing of a single person in violence-plagued Pakistan, not least in Karachi, a seaside metropolis ever in danger of boiling over into sectarian bloodshed. But the murder of a Saudi diplomat by unknown assailants ought to raise eyebrows. Saudi Arabia’s tangled, pervasive influence in Pakistan has been well …
Was the Slapdown of Ahmadinejad By Iran’s Ruling Ayatullah Good for America?
Iran wants to talk, again, about the nuclear standoff with the West. Laura Rozen reports that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, has written to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to request another meeting. The last round of talks, held in January, was so frustrating to the Western …
What Do Israel’s Leaders Really Think About Iran?
Israel bombing Iran could, indeed, be a spectacularly stupid idea, but does the Israeli public really need to hear that? That not-in-front-of-the-kids message seemed to be the gist of Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak’s criticism of Meir Dagan, recently retired head of the Mossad intelligence agency, who last week warned publicly that …
Iran: Ahmadinejad on the Ropes in Clash with his Supreme Leader
Iran’s streets are quiet, the uprising that followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s reelection two years ago but a memory as opposition leaders languish in prison or under house arrest, and fear of the brutal security forces restrains most from protesting. And yet, there are unmistakable signs that the regime is literally cracking …
The Other Shoe? Egypt Moves to Ease Gaza Siege
Egypt’s announcement that it will open its border crossing with the Gaza Strip — loosening the siege of the Palestinian enclave Egypt has helped Israel carry out — has the sound of the other shoe dropping. Coming one day after word that the post-Mubarak government had brokered a tentative unity accord between rival Palestinian …
In Little Iran, There’s No Mistaking the Stakes
You really could be in Iran, traveling the roads of Lebanon’s south. The billboards of the martyrs look newer, the young men honored by them having perished not in the 1980s, when Iran and Iraq fought to the death, but just five years ago, when Israel launched an assault on the stronghold of Hizballah, the Lebanese Shiite militia …
Iraq’s Assault on Camp Ashraf: The Tenuous Life of a Fringe Iranian Faction
Update: The U.N. reported on April 14 that 34 people were killed during the raid on Camp Ashraf last week.
Was ever there a stranger lot than the Mujahedin-e-Khalk Organization? Today its military arm stands braced for the worst in Camp Ashraf, a dusty military base tucked into a corner of a once-welcoming host nation, Iraq, that …
Were the Israelis Behind the ‘Mystery’ Air Strike in Sudan?
About ten hours before a warplane roared down the Red Sea, crossed into Sudanese airspace and let fly a missile at a sedan, killing both of the people inside, Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Gilad offered a piece of advice about secret military actions to audience of diplomats and journalists in a Jerusalem hotel.
“Never boast,” Gilad said. “Be …
Stability at What Price? Why Bahrain Needs Reforms Too
It’s the question that always makes me cringe. “Where are you from?” asks the taxi driver/shopkeeper/doorman/interviewee. I don’t lie, but in Pakistan or the Middle East I know that answering “American” can sometimes be met with a fusillade of angry observations about the evils of America’s foreign policy. Until recently, …
Iran: Rafsanjani Ouster a Defeat for Regime’s anti-Ahmadinejad Camp
Prospects for significant reform within Iran’s regime suffered a serious blow, Tuesday, with the news that former President Hashemi Rafsanjani has been unseated as chairman of the powerful Guardian Council Assembly of Experts, an 86-member body of clerics which has the authority to unseat the country’s Supreme Leader — and which will …