Middle East & North Africa Archive

Pakistan recently decided to move forward with a gas pipeline project with Iran, despite warnings from the United States that involvement could subject Pakistani companies to new United States sanctions. In an e-mail interview, Harsh V. Pant, lecturer in the Department of Defense Studies at King’s College of London, explains the pipeline’s significance in the context of Pakistan-Iran relations. WPR: What are the driving interests for both parties in this pipeline project? Harsh V. Pant: Pakistan’s growing energy needs and Iran’s pool of energy resources make the two states natural economic partners, and served as the impetus behind the proposed […]

Tension between Iran and the United Arab Emirates is rising after the UAE became the first Gulf state to publicly signal endorsement of military force to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, should peaceful efforts to resolve the standoff over Tehran’s nuclear program fail. The UAE also restricted Iran’s use of Dubai to imports goods sanctioned by the United Nations and the United States. In a statement, the UAE Foreign Ministry described recorded remarks made by UAE ambassador to the United States, Yousef al-Otaiba, at a conference in Colorado as “inaccurate.” Nonetheless, the remarks offer a rare insight into […]

James Baker, former United States secretary of state, discusses U.S. relations with Israel and the military option in Iran with former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee. Baker supports the land-for-peace track between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in order to achieve a stable, lasting peace. The senior statesman also says that though keeping the military option on the table helps facilitate diplomatic negotiations, in the case of Iran, a military strike against Tehran could hurt reformers more than the hard-liners. Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

The UAE will not be taking military action against Iran over three disputed islands in the Gulf, despite some rumors, but tensions between the two countries are on the rise. As the UAE continues to build strategic relationships and Iran’s international standing plummets, the battle for Abu Masa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb might be tipping in the Emirates’ favor. Al Jazeera’s Dan Nolan reports.

United State President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak to the press after their one-on-one meeting in the White House. The leaders discussed the Middle East peace process, specifically concerning Gaza, sanctions against Iran, and other interests shared by the two nations that Obama said have a “common set of values.”

In what has become a tragically predictable cycle, a new war breaks out every few years in the heart of the Middle East. And a quick scan of the region today points to a dizzying number of possibilities for potential conflicts that might erupt. Yet, most people in the region generally agree about where the next major clash will start and which armies it will involve — at least as its principal combatants. As for when the fighting will begin, nobody knows that with certainty. But the drumbeat of warning signs that the moment could come soon is growing louder […]

I can’t remember the last time I read something as cogently argued about the current strategic landscape in the Middle East as this Washington Quarterly article (.pdf) by Alistair Crooke. Avoiding the typical hysteria and alarmism often on display in such analyses, Crooke sketches out the tectonic shifts that are inexorably driving the emergence of Turkey, Iran and to a lesser extent Syria as the new arc of influence in the region — what Crooke calls the “Northern Tier.” As Ben Katcher observes, the article overlaps quite a bit with Stephen Kinzer’s thesis, as well. The obvious temptation is to […]

Virtually unnoticed, U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu have quietly set the stage to move forward Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, mend their tense personal relations and build a working relationship that takes the legitimate interests of their two countries into account. In a series of low-key moves, both men have worked to ensure that their meeting today at the White House demonstrates improved relations since Netanyahu last visited Washington in March. Differences then over Israeli settlement policy in Jerusalem produced one of the tensest moments in U.S.-Israeli relations in recent history. Netanyahu canceled subsequent talks scheduled for […]

Almost everyone would welcome greater cooperation between Moscow and Washington on ballistic missile defense. But decades of frustrating experience have taught us that this is precisely the wrong issue to make the centerpiece of the U.S.-Russia reset, notwithstanding what Andrew Futter argues in his WPR Briefing from last week. Rather than waste additional time and goodwill on the endeavor, we need to think more creatively about deepening bilateral collaboration regarding other issues, including promoting regional security in Afghanistan and Central Asia. Nevertheless, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statements during her visit to Poland last weekend show that the Obama […]

Invariably, when Americans engage in nation-building exercises around the world, it is hoped that the indigenous leaders that emerge will be cast in the mold of our Founding Fathers. We are looking for the George Washingtons, Thomas Jeffersons, and James Madisons to take the helm in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Inevitably, we are disappointed when the Hamid Karzais, the Nouri al-Malikis and others fail to live up to these often-idealized expectations. Maybe it would help if we substituted a different set of historical names and role models. If we can’t get a Washington in Afghanistan, we’d certainly do well […]

What exactly is President Barack Obama prepared to do in order to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons? And just how committed is the American president to curtailing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear enrichment efforts? Taken together, these questions represent one of the most important and most consequential unknowns in the realms of diplomacy, foreign policy, and geostrategic planning today. It is no exaggeration to say the course of history will be shaped by what lies behind the veil that is hiding Obama’s true plans for Iran. Bit by bit, an image of the Obama administration’s long-term views on how to […]

Last week, the U.S. Congress overwhelmingly approved updated Iran sanctions legislation, significantly expanding the scope of existing U.S. sanctions against Iran, and in particular, its petroleum industry. The bill’s major impact is to include under the U.S. sanctions regime companies and other institutions that provide goods or services to Iran’s petroleum industry, as well as those that export gasoline to Iran. It also expands the list of possible penalties that the U.S. president can impose, including a prohibition on any transfers of funds through U.S. financial institutions. The new legislation, if utilized judiciously in conjunction with multilateral sanctions imposed by […]

When it comes to military doctrine and strategic thinking, the high-profile debate getting all the attention these days is COIN vs. conventional. But if you want to get a head start on the next big brouhaha, start paying attention to the conversation currently picking up steam around the strategic implications of anti-access and area denial (A2AD) capabilities. Simply put, they refer to conventional and/or asymmetric tactics meant to prevent or deter a superior force from deploying into a theater of operations. The “usual suspects” are Iran in the Persian Gulf, with its swarming naval tactics, Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, with […]

Having supposedly turned its back definitively on Israel, the EU, and the West in general, it turns out Turkey engaged in talks with . . . Israel and the EU. Go figure. I’m not going to belabor this point. Neither am I going to minimize the wild-card factor represented by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s temperamental reactiveness and his unrealistic conditions for Turkey-Israel reconciliation. And it’s useless to deny the fundamental shifts emerging in Ankara’s strategic calculus, both regionally and further abroad. But those shifts are based on a pretty clear-eyed and smart assessment both of Turkey’s upside potential […]