By Juan Cole The London pan-Arab daily “Hayat” [Life] reports this morning on the air strikes conducted on ISIL positions in Raqqah, Syria, by the United States and several Arab allies. The Syrian government acknowledged that the US gave fair warning it would bomb Raqqah to the Syrian ambassador to the UN. That is, the […]
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GCC
The Arab Political Crisis: It isn’t a Matter of Civilization and it isn’t Unique
By Juan Cole Hisham Melhem has a piece on what he calls the collapse of Arab civilization. The piece is riddled with contradictions and fuzzy thinking and with all due respect to Milhem, who is a knowledgeable and experienced correspondent, I am going to disagree with it vehemently. I think he is arguing that Arabs […]
Top 5 Contradictions in Obama’s Emerging ISIL Strategy
By Juan Cole In the past week, Secretary of State John Kerry has marshaled support of some sort from both European nations and from countries in the Middle East for the US push against ISIL. Unfortunately, the resulting coalition is riddled with contradictions that may well cripple it. Here a some of the more important […]
US Public Worried about ISIL, Putin– But Climate Change is Real Challenge
By Juan Cole In a new Pew/ USA Today poll, the American public shows itself alarmed by the rise of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in northern Iraq and Syria as a threat to US security, finding it more threatening even than Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who has risen on the villain […]
5 Ironies of US Reaction to Egypt/UAE Bombing of Libya
The diplomatic angst issuing from Washington around the United Arab Emirates and Egypt bombing of weapons depots belonging to the Qatar-backed fundamentalist militia of Misrata holds many delicious ironies: 1. According to the BBC, “the US, France, Germany, Italy and the UK issued a joint statement denouncing “outside interference” in Libya.” Seriously, guys? Except for […]
Iraq Crisis: It’s the Oil, Stupid!
By Michael Schwartz via Tomdispatch Events in Iraq are headline news everywhere, and once again, there is no mention of the issue that underlies much of the violence: control of Iraqi oil. Instead, the media is flooded with debate about, horror over, and extensive analysis of a not-exactly-brand-new terrorist threat, the Islamic State of Iraq […]
The Obama Effect? Are Iran/ Saudi-and-GCC no longer on a war footing?
(By Juan Cole) There are signs of a diplomatic thaw between Iran and the Arab oil monarchies of the Gulf. It has just been announced that the ruler of Kuwait, Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, will make a state visit to Iran. This news comes after it was confirmed that the Iranian foreign minister has been invited […]
Saudi-Iran Struggle and the Syrian Proxy War can only be Resolved by Diplomacy
(By Robert Mason) The current foreign policy tensions between Iran and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) pivot around Iran’s nuclear programme, ideology (the relative balance between revolutionary/resistance ideology and pragmatism), sectarianism, territorial disputes (such as over the islands of Abu Musa, Greater and Lesser Tunb) and alliances with state and non-state actors. […]