Special Analysises

Lebanon’s inconvenient truths

By any objective standard, the Lebanese protest movement has failed. This is not necessarily an indictment against it. Rather, it’s a reality one cannot and should not ignore. The responsible thing to do now is to try to understand why it has fallen flat, despite more than 100 days of demonstrations in various regions of the country, including the capital, Beirut.

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The real cost of US-Iran escalation in Iraq

As an Iraqi American who lived through the 1991 Gulf War and 2003 U.S.-led invasion to bring about regime change, I have witnessed firsthand how U.S. wars in the region can break out when Baghdad and Washington fail to understand each other’s intentions and motives.

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Trump and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards after Qassem Soleimani

Iran and the U.S. were on a collision course as soon as President Donald Trump arrived at the White House in January 2017. The U.S. pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and re-imposed crippling sanctions on Tehran. The Iranians, desperate to regain some leverage and break the back of the sanction regime, countered from May 2019 on with a series of actions, including hit-and-run attacks on vessels in and around the Persian Gulf, shooting down a U.S. drone in June, and daring and unprecedented missile attacks on two Saudi oil facilities in September. The cycle of escalation was a high-risk strategy for both sides. The Trump administration, unwilling to ease up on its “maximum pressure” campaign until Tehran came to the table to negotiate comprehensively about the issues of concern to the U.S., opted to put Iran on notice.

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US-Iran escalation and its implications for the South Caucasus

Over the past several weeks geopolitical experts have been talking a lot about what the surprise U.S. drone attack on Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – Quds Force, on Jan. 3 means for the Middle East and relations between the major powers. What has received considerably less attention, however, is what Soleimani’s killing means for the South Caucasus, a region whose small size belies its strategic importance.

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In Bosnia’s First ‘Deradicalised’ Syria Fighter, Limited Lessons

For 20 years, Misin Deliu constructed his own monologue in his mind about what he would tell the court on the day he would be called to testify.

Deliu was one of just two survivors of a massacre of Rezalle, a village in the north-western Kosovo municipality of Skenderaj/Srbica, where Serbian forces killed 98 Albanian civilians on April 5, 1999.

Muslim Brotherhood Celebrates 9-Year Anniversary of Arab Spring

The Muslim Brotherhood is celebrating the nine-year anniversary of the Arab Spring this year. Despite coordinating and executing terror attacks against fellow Egyptians, support for the Brotherhood has remained resilient across Egyptian society. This is in large part due to its investments the Brotherhood has made over decades to develop a robust infrastructure and social support networks that have ingratiated millions of Egyptians to its leadership.

Mali: Le chef des opérations de paix de l’ONU, Jean-Pierre Lacroix sur la situation sécuritaire au Mali: « La MINUSMA doit faire plus et mieux »

Avant de clore sa visite entamée au Mali depuis dimanche 26 janvier dernier, le chef des opérations de paix de l’ONU, Jean-Pierre Lacroix était face à la presse, hier jeudi 30 janvier, à Bamako. Il s’agissait pour lui de faire le point de ce déplacement ainsi que les raisons qui l’ont motivé. Tout en appréciant les échanges avec les populations de l’intérieur du pays sur le rôle de la MINUSMA, il a affirmé que celle-ci doit fournir des efforts supplémentaires pour la sécurisation et la stabilisation du pays.

Libya at war: “FX Surcharges Vs Petrodollars” – the reality

The dominant call by all participants at the Berlin Libya conference on 19 January addressed to all parties at war in Libya were, in order of importance; “a fair and equitable distribution of oil revenues”, “implement the UN arms embargo” and “stop using foreign mercenaries”.