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The Camp David summit between Barack Obama and GCC states that took place on May 13-14 bears an enormous symbolic meaning for Washington as it echoes US Middle East peacemaking efforts under Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. This time, however, the summit’s goal was to reconcile the US with its long-time partners in the region, the Gulf Cooperation Council. The ties that have been weakening during ...
... that the situation is clear – the U.S. missile “umbrella” is designed to protect its allies on the Arabian Peninsula from the expected missile “rain” from Iran. Talking to U.S. diplomats and military personnel who have been working in the Middle East for a number of decades, as well as regional experts and political scientists, helps us reconstruct a picture of the world as it appears in the minds of those who determine U.S. policy in the region. They are not interested in resolving the ...
The Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and the German foundation Friedrich Ebert Stiftung are starting a joint project to analyse the contemporary situation in the Middle East. The project aims to draw up practical recommendations for the Russian and German leadership on setting up constructive cooperation between the two countries in order to help resolve the crisis situation that has developed in the region since ...
April has been a month of vibrant Russian foreign policy activity in the Middle East. A number of Middle Eastern leaders visited Moscow; Russian diplomats held the second consultative meeting between representatives of the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition; Russian planes evacuated all Russian citizens from Yemen,...
Media outlets and government circles both cringe and squirm when the subject of Westerners leaving the West to go fight in Syria and Iraq with the Islamic State arises. While acquiring data and calculating accurate numbers wildly diverges from source to source, there is no doubt that ANY number simply makes countries like the United States uncomfortable and perplexed: in short, how could anyone want to leave the land of the free, the tolerant, the open, the just and go fight for a group that represents...
A second front seems to have been fully opened up in the Middle East by the whirlwind events in Yemen, which few predicted and hence have generated numerous forecasts regarding the consequences for the broader security of the Arabia Peninsula and the Middle East as a whole. They state that the Yemen crisis ...
... AQAP dramatically stepped up its activities, particularly in the oil-rich province of Ma’rib, which, in turn, was due to both external and internal factors. The former implies the emergence of the Islamic state and its growing influence in the Middle East. This successful project could not but affect the overall situation in the region: various radical Islamist groups have perceived ISIL as the real force worth joining. AQAP has been no exception and received an additional motivation for its ...
... groups actively pursuing technological attacks on American targets simultaneously alongside the development of the U.S. drone fleet. Keep in mind blowback comes in forms other than just anger over actual attacks. There is growing dissent across the Middle East at what is perceived to be a total lack of transparency and scrutiny by the American public over its government’s use of drones. This concern was growing even before the U.S. expanded drone use into the Arabian Peninsula and Northern ...
... society. Last night, hundreds and hundreds of Tunisians gathered on the main street of the capital to say "no" to the attempt to intimidate the people. AP Sergei Veselovsky: The Second Front of Islamic Terrorism Obviously, many forces in the Middle East and the world do not like the example of Tunisia, a country where different and even antagonistic political forces have been able to come to agreements and work out a plan of action aimed at rebuilding the country after the shocks of "Jasmine ...
Military aircraft in the Middle East conflicts December 18, 2011 was a momentous day for the U.S. Air Force: it flew the last combat sorties as part of Operation New Dawn , the final phase of the second Iraq War that began in 2003. For the first time since the start of the ...
