GCC Nations: Protections and Risks
With the exception of Yemen, the member nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council range from prosperous to extremely rich—but they are also vulnerable to security threats from terrorists and from Iran....
View ArticleOur New Ally Iran?
Will the crisis in Iraq lead to a rapprochement with Iran? Will the effort to strike a nuclear deal expand into a broader agreement? That is the nightmare of many of our allies in the Middle East,...
View Article“Who Won the Gaza War,” and “What Now for Israel?”
In the past week I have written a long article and even longer essay on the Middle East situation today. “‘The Fog of Cease-fire: Who Won the Gaza War” is the cover story in this week’s edition of The...
View ArticleBahrain: Jail for Insulting the Ministry of Interior
A number of states still imprison people for offending the head of state. When Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was president of Egypt, he did it all the time. As I’ve written here before,...
View ArticleGuess Who’s Coming to (the GCC) Dinner?
On May 13 and 14, President Obama will be hosting a summit meeting with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation. The members nations are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, and Qatar. The problem...
View ArticleObama and the Saudis: Too Many Glaring Mistakes
Yesterday President Obama greeted the number two and three officials of Saudi Arabia, in the Oval Office. Obviously, U.S.-Saudi relations are not in good shape, as we learned from the refusal of King...
View ArticleThe Saudis and Israel
Two new developments may suggest an opening in relations between Israel and the Gulf states. The first is a new survey of public opinion in Saudi Arabia, conducted by telephone–from Israel, by students...
View ArticleBahrain Slips Further into Repression
The Project on Middle East Democracy sums up the week in Bahrain: First, “A Bahraini court ordered the suspension of all activities by al-Wefaq, the island-nation’s largest opposition party. The...
View Article
