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Is the Biden administration really turning its back on MBS, or just whipping him into line?

By Abdel Bari Atwan

The most noteworthy thing about the release of the US intelligence report into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is that it was not accompanied by any sanctions against Crown Prince Muhammad Bin-Salman.

The publication of the report’s redacted summary was supposed to demonstrate the Biden administration’s commitment to upholding human rights and punishing violators and also to recalibrating the US’ relationship with the Saudi leadership.

The US is mistaken if it thinks it can force Iran into a new deal by targeting its allies

By Abdel Bari Atwan

Just days after Israel launched a round of missile strikes against military targets near Damascus, American F- 15s were ordered into action in eastern Syria. The Pentagon said they targeted bases used by the Kataib Hezbollah group which it blamed for recent missile attacks on the US embassy compound in Baghdad and American military facilities at Erbil airport in northern Iraq.

The alternative to reviving the nuclear deal is for Iran to go down the North Korean path

By Abdel Bari Atwan

The Biden administration has realised that Iran won’t blink first and is serious about threatening to withdraw from the nuclear agreement and cease all compliance with its terms. That is why it arranged for its European allies to hold an ‘unofficial’ meeting with the Iranian side in Brussels, and treated the talks as a ladder to climb down from the tree of economic sanctions and save face.

Muhammad Bin-Salman staked everything on Trump and Netanyahu. Now he has lost his bet.

By Abdel Bari Atwan

If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is distraught because he has not yet received a phone call from Joe Biden, Saudi officials are even more alarmed. Not that they were awaiting a call of their own from the new US president, nor for him to make Riyadh the destination of his first foreign trip like his predecessor Donald Trump. But they are anticipating trouble and unpleasant surprises in relations with his administration.

Trump’s demise has dealt a major blow to the Israeli premier and his newfound Arab allies

By Abdel Bari Atwan

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in a panic. He is desperate to stage a visit to an Arab capital before the forthcoming Israeli parliamentary elections. Nobody has been more contemptuous of the Arabs and their causes than he has, whether on the world stage or on the ground: with his massacres in Gaza and annexation, colonisation and apartheid policies in the West Bank.

Tehran doesn’t trust US commitments any longer, it wants to see concrete steps

By Abdel Bari Atwan

Direct talks may not have officially started between Iran and the Biden administration about reviving the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal. But negotiations are well underway through the media and statements from both sides intended to convey coded messages to the other. Their substance is not hard for seasoned observers to decipher.

The big question being addressed at present is which side will flinch first in the escalating diplomatic standoff.

Fateh and Hamas are more interested in self-preservation than restoring national unity and resisting the occupation

By Abdel Bari Atwan

Never since the 1948 Nakba have the Palestinian people been in a such a state of drift and political, military and social disarray as they are today. The main responsibility falls on the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership, which claims to be the people’s sole representative and spokesman while failing to uphold even the most basic of national principles or live up their duties in terms of performance, conduct and commitment.

The Saudi-Iranian proxy conflict, currently focused on Yemen, seems set to escalate and expand

By Abdel Bari Atwan

It hasn’t taken long for Donald Trump’s departure and the advent of a new US administration led by Joe Biden to start impacting on the Middle East and raising tensions in the region. Saturday night’s missile attack on the Saudi capital Riyadh, and the alarm it caused in many Western and Arab capitals, can be seen in this context. The US State Department was quick to condemn the raid and offer to help Saudi Arabia defend against attacks on its territory and hold the perpetrators to account.

Terrible as Trump was for both countries, neither can expect much better with Biden at the helm

By Abdel Bari Atwan

Two murderous attacks in succession: a double suicide bombing in Baghdad which killed 32 innocent Iraqis and injured more than one hundred; and a missile strike launched by Israeli warplanes from Lebanese airspace on Syria’s Homs province in which a family of four perished.

Is it a coincidence that both took place just as Joe Biden was taking office as US president? The Israeli attack was nothing new.

Biden won’t be able to repair the damage done by Trump to the US and its global hegemony

By Abdel Bari Atwan

Donald Trump’s ignominious departure from the White House, as he left for his private resort in Florida unaccompanied by any of his previous loyal aides, marked his humiliating defeat for the time being – though it may not be long before he resumes his quest to demolish his party and country and deepen their divisions.

The depth of the crisis Trump bequeathed was reflected in the inauguration speech given by his successor Joe Biden.