Orientul Mijlociu

Earlier this month, a prominent researcher and security expert in Iraq, who was close to the new prime minister and to Western governments, was gunned down outside his home in Baghdad.

The struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia for dominance in the Middle East has insinuated itself into nearly every regional issue, fracturing international alliances and sustaining wars across the region, while raising fears of a direct conflict between the two powers that could involve the U.S.

The Turkish embassy in Libya’s capital Tripoli has dismissed the claims of Saudi channel “Al-Arabiya”, which is based in the UAE, about the meeting between the Turkish ambassador and Head of Libya’s High Council of State Khalid Al-Mishri, denying to have sent any message to the Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha about his visits to Egypt and France.

The recent military movement by the Israeli forces in the northern front along the Lebanese borders and also in regions bordering Gaza Strip is seen by some observers as Tel Aviv’s ground-making to take offensive moves in the near future.

A report by the Conflict Armament Research group said that overall more than 50 companies, in over 20 countries, produced or distributed goods that ISIS forces subsequently used to make IEDs, drones and improvised weapon systems.

Then there is the Turkish Hezbollah, a Sunni violent organization that aims to found a Kurdish-Islamic state based on sharia. Although the Turkish Hezbollah is not to be confused with the Lebanese Hezbollah, it too has links with the Shia regime in Iran.

Now they [the Europeans] find themselves locked into what they know is a phoney and highly dangerous nuclear agreement that simply consigns confrontation with a nuclear-armed Iran to future generations.

They [the Iranian leadership] look at Europeans, as well as Americans, with contempt, as weak and decadent, lacking the courage or resolve to stick up for their own interests…. President Trump gave them pause for thought, especially when he ordered the death of Qasem Soleimani…. They have higher hopes of Biden, whom they expect to be more supine.

We may be proved wrong, but our guess is that Tehran will do nothing to raise the degree of tension even by one notch….

Khamenei promised “hard revenge” for Soleimani’s death but has vowed nothing but “prosecution and punishment” of perpetrators. His emphasis is on “the continuation” of Fakhrizadeh’s work.