World News Insights: Opinion Articles

The Turkish-Israeli tension is no longer merely a reflection of the disagreement over Gaza or of the political enmity between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Developments in Syria and Lebanon reveal that the relationship has moved to a deeper level of…

Netanyahu's gifts are not to be denied, and the clearest evidence of them is that he has remained Israel's top leader longer than any of his predecessors among the founders and the historic figures. Those gifts have been concentrated on managing his own leadership within Israeli politics,…

War in the field is vastly different from war on paper. Brilliance in planning does not grant immunity from surprises. Experience dictates that while a ruler knows when he goes to war, he does not know when he will return from it. The return is determined by the condition of the enemy or adversary,…

In a recently surfaced video, Mohsen Rezaei speaks about Iran kidnapping one thousand American soldiers and bargaining over them. While the video is authentic, the statement is old, dating back to 2015. Today, Rezaei serves as the right-hand man to the new Supreme Leader and holds the position…

In military language, when a town "falls," it means that it is no longer a place where people can live safely. The latest town declared fallen in the South Lebanon war is Ali al-Taher. Since the fighting began, it has been referred to by several names and descriptions, including the facility, the…

The confrontation between Washington and Tehran is entering its seventh month without victory or resolution. This outcome does not necessarily mean that either side is incapable of winning. Rather, it means that each has found that prolonging the war costs less than ending it. Wars are not measured…

The issue of the Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon has ended as a "distraction" and a different phase has begun—one that changes nothing in the substance of the matter. The Israeli propaganda machine, organized and disseminated by experts in psychological warfare, gave many people, including…

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…

The publishers of Al-Qafilah, a long-established cultural magazine issued by Aramco, have been sending me its quarterly issues for years. At a time when some Arab cultural magazines have lost their distinguished standing, having lost the capacity to keep pace with developments, Al-Qafilah has gone…

Three days separate us from the opening of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 8, and questions are being urgently raised: is the UN Charter still effective? Is it still able to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, as the opening pledge made at San…

My thoughts turned to Plato, the inspiration of Western philosophy, as I listened to this political conversation between two cultivated Lebanese friends at a café on the bank of the Seine. Not because of any philosophical bent in what they said- their talk stayed within a purely political and…

A few days ago, US President Donald Trump said that if the Iranian regime possessed a nuclear weapon, it would use it against its neighbors and against anyone the ideologues of the Revolutionary Guards consider a permissible target. Some among the opponents of Trump and of Trumpism - and some of…