China has effectively coped with its role of facilitator, but now the country will have to enforce the agreements reached
In March 2023, seven years after diplomatic relations were severed, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) have agreed to reopen their embassies. This decision opens up the possibility of reducing tensions in the Gulf and, in the long term, in the entire region of the Middle East. Notably, both sides have stated the need to respect sovereignty, ...
... as far as this is possible. Israel’s stubborn attempts to mobilize the West, and in part the US, to share its rejection of Iran not only as a regional leader but even as a country that has the right to exist in its present form under religious leadership,... ... this coalition to be extremely negative. Let me repeat, this is not a coalition but the US and some of its closest allies.
Our diplomacy is very effective, especially in the Middle East. There is not a single country in the region with which Russia has ...
... myopic side, you have Putin thinking that risking the ire of almost all the Sunni governments, Sunni people, and Sunni jihadists by helping Shiite Alawite Assad massacre mainly Sunni rebels and civilians with the help of Shiite Hezbollah and Shiite Iran just for Russia's having a naval base on Syria’s coast and a few new bases inside Syria as well as a client in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who accounts for roughly 10% of global Russian arms sales is worth it (oh, and there’s ...
... been the Assad regime: though secular in ideology (Ba'athist), it is headed by Arab Alawite (a sect of Shiite Islam that is a small minority in Syria) Bashar al-Assad and is controlled mainly by Alawate Shiites. It is backed by Shiite Persian Iranians and the Arab Shiite Lebanese militia Hezbollah. Sunni Muslims, in general, do not like Shiites, and that is an understatement; many Sunnis do not even consider Shiites to be Muslims. That is why so much money from rich Gulf countries like Saudi ...
... intervention. Qaddafi, alone and isolated and ruling over a far smaller population, was a relatively easy target. Compared to Qaddafi’s regime, Assad’s military was much stronger and, unlike Qaddafi’s, had strong patrons in Russia and Iran who would complicate and increase the costs of any Western intervention and made the prospects of any success for the Syrian people on their own quite dim.
Some powers talked of intervening in Syria, but with the U.S. signaling no appetite for direct ...
A few days ago, the world was witnessing history in the making, as the P5+1 and Iran managed to reach an historical agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme. And while world leaders are now expressing their concerns about the document’s shortcomings, albeit in a restrained way, the political will and efforts of the parties,...
... wants more sanctions on Iran and illogically opposes Obama’s sound framework for, and attempt at reaching, a deal with Iran on its nuclear program, while Obama wants to hold off while negotiations are taking place and close the deal outline by the ... ... that there are no substantive consequences for such mistreatment.
Grade: D+
Obama deserves some credit for robust public diplomacy consistently condemning Israeli settlement expansion and even condemning the tactics used in Gaza last summer, and as ...
... colonizers, will eventually necessitate a change in American policy as Israel refuses to change its policies and boxes itself into being an apartheid-like political pariah within the Western world.
4.) There’s a good chance for a thaw/deal with Iran in the near future.
More than any president since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Obama has shown an energy and a willingness to move past long-failed non-engagement, as has Iran’s President Rouhani. Normalization is a very real possibility....
... to gain so much in power there in the first place, further fragmenting an already disintegrating nation and creating more problems for the U.S., the region, and the world. U.S. support would also strengthen an Iraqi government that was in line with Iran in many ways and had resisted accommodating the U.S. government when it came to a whole array of issues. Helping Maliki’s government would thus provide little advancement for U.S. interests other than blunting ISIS’s advance in the short-term,...
