English

The Arab-Israeli normalisation fad will not last long. And the regimes involved will live to regret it.

By Abdel Bari Atwan

With all the Israeli media confirming that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Saudi Arabia on Sunday for talks with Crown Prince Muhammad Bin-Salman and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin-Farhan’s awkward denial that any such meeting took place was unconvincing in the extreme.

True, Netanyahu’s office refused to confirm or deny the gathering held at the complex of royal palaces in north-eastern Saudi Arabia at the site of the planned ‘mega-city’ of Neom.

…and how will Riyadh react to Ankara’s growing regional and Islamic role?

By Abdel Bari Atwan

On the eve of the G-20 summit hosted by Saudi Arabia, King Salman phoned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and they agreed to resolve outstanding differences between their two countries through dialogue. This move not only reflected the kingdom’s eagerness to ensure that Erdogan would personally take part in the ‘virtual’ gathering, Turkey being the only other Muslim member of the G-20.

Trump may be planning to make his exit in a blaze of military ‘glory’

By Abdel Bari Atwan

With Donald Trump seemingly beginning to accept that he lost the presidential election, everyone is wondering what he intends to do in the two months he has left in the White House before his presumed departure date of 20 January.

One possibility is that he will try to leave office in a blaze of military ‘glory’ as a decisive strongman by ordering devastating air and missile strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities — after quickly withdrawing US troops from the Middle East (especially Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria) to prevent them being targeted for retaliation.

… for accelerating the decline of the USA as a global power

By Abdel Bari Atwan

For the past half century or more, most administrations in Washington have taken action to change regimes that oppose US political or military hegemony and even to redraw national borders, whether by military, political or economic means. The USA now seems to be getting a self-administered dose of its own medicine. Change is coming to America, in terms both of its national identity and domestic politics and its status as a global superpower.

Are we facing a fresh wave of terror that poisons relations between European governments and their Muslim populations?

By Abdel Bari Atwan

Monday evening’s terrorist attack in Vienna was a serious development. It could prove to be the prelude to more acts of horrific and indiscriminate violence against civilians in Europe that aggravates current tensions between incumbent governments and their Muslim immigrant communities.

This act of terror differed in several important respects from the previous attacks that took place recently in France and other European countries.

The French president has second thoughts about Muslim-baiting for political advantage

By Abdel Bari Atwan

Emmanuel Macron went on the Al- Jazeera channel on Saturday to say he understands the feelings of Muslims shocked by the displaying of offensive cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad and qualify his fulsome defence of the drawings. “I think that the reactions came as a result of lies and distortions of my words because people understood that I supported these cartoons,” he explained.

Is Trump trying to avert a war between Egypt and Ethiopia, or incite one?

By Abdel Bari Atwan

Donald Trump’s warning that Egypt might ‘blow up’ Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) to protect its vital water supplies raised many eyebrows. The US president not only made the dramatic prediction suddenly and without any prompting but justified and seemed to endorse and even encourage such action. Trump described the impasse over the dam as “a very dangerous situation because Egypt is not going to be able to live that way,” adding: “They’ll end up blowing up the dam.

If Lebanon’s reappointed premier wants to fight corruption, he could start by admitting his own and his family’s share of responsibility

By Abdel Bari Atwan

Even by Lebanese and Arab standards, President Michel Aoun’s reappointment of Saad al-Hariri as prime minister was bizarre. Never in the history of ‘Arab revolutions’ has a head of government been forced to resign due to mass anti-corruption protests only to be reinstated a year later, under a French initiative and heavy American pressure, in the guise of a reformer.

Slowly but surely, Syria’s enemies have been beating a path to its d

By Abdel Bari Atwan

Syria may not have returned to the Arab League. But it is clear that the countries that suspended its membership of the organisation a decade ago at the behest of the US are slowly but surely returning to Damascus – if not on the orders of, then at least without opposition from, Washington.

 Three recent developments illustrate an important change of attitudes towards Syria and the government of President Bashar al-Asad.

A tangled web of alliances and realignments is forming over the latest conflict in the Caucasus

By Abdel Bari Atwan

The wars that have afflicted our ‘Middle East’ region incessantly since the start of the last century have taught us two things: that ‘dormant’ ethnic and religious conflicts can be reawakened at any moment; and when truces are agreed they prove unreliable and short-lived so long as the underlying causes are not tackled.

The breakdown of the Russian-brokered humanitarian cease-fire between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh – where hundreds have been killed and thousands displaced on both sides in the past two weeks – did not therefore come as a surprise.