Sawsan al-Shaer

The entire world erred in its attempts to contain the Iranian regime over the past decades. The United States, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, mistakenly believed it could benefit from engagement with this regime and that certain sanctions could mitigate the damage it caused…

Before becoming preoccupied with calculating how many Iranian vessels were struck in the Strait of Hormuz, or how many commercial ships came under Iranian attack, we must step back slightly from this specific image and attempt to view what is happening through a comprehensive and broader lens of…

To begin with, it can be said that had it not been for the readiness of the Gulf Cooperation Council Customs Union, as a product of Gulf integration efforts, the exchange of customs information among member states would not have been as efficient as it was. This efficiency enabled the launch of…

There appears to be an implicit international consensus to end the era of transnational groups. Following ISIS and al-Qaeda, the turn has come for Iran's proxies, which - led by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - have become a global threat. Here lies the global turning point that…

The homelessness crisis in Britain has worsened significantly, reaching record levels. Around 4,793 people are sleeping rough on the streets in England alone, while estimates by charities point to hundreds of thousands of people experiencing homelessness in its various forms. These are the latest…

More than one international coalition is now taking shape to confront the actions of militias across the region, whose activities threaten security and stability and endanger international shipping. The more countries that join these coalitions, and the more closely those coalitions coordinate with…

Successive Iraqi governments were never forced to make such a choice. There had been no direct military confrontations between the Gulf states and Iran, particularly as the Gulf countries adopted a policy of restraint and containment in response to Iranian aggression, seeking to avoid a direct…

Gulf diplomacy must intensify after the changes and turning points of recent days. Joint delegations should engage European allies, as well as other countries with which the Gulf maintains strong relations, such as China and Russia, and urge them to help introduce the final chapter of Iran's…

Since February 28, the Iranian regime has attempted to send contradictory messages to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states: at times, conciliatory political messages, and at other times, military messages involving direct bombardment of civilian targets. There were two discourses: the…

An Iranian official said that “we have prepared a vast arsenal of weapons, missiles, and drones for this promised day.” When Iran came under Israeli-US attack on February 28, we assumed that arsenal would be directed at the enemy that struck it. That, after all, is what this “promised day” was…