World News Insights: Opinion Articles

Among the many "blessings" Iran has bestowed on Iraq is the empowerment of armed "loyalist" militias in the Land of the Two Rivers, along with the "invention" of what is known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). Over time, this entity has steadily encroached on the state and come to dominate…

In the summer of 1971, the world was boiling, as usual. Suddenly, a dangerous secret was revealed: the US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, was “undergoing treatment” in the city of Islamabad. But for what illness? For the “China illness.” It would reshape the strategic balance of the world…

Declaring a state of war is among the most serious sovereign decisions a state can take, given its profound political, military, and legal consequences. In Iraq, the constitution strictly regulates this process to prevent misuse and to strike a balance between protecting the state and preserving…

South Lebanon (the South of the river, the far South) is steeped in antiquity. For thousands of years, the peoples and tribes who successively settled forged its collective memory, and its written and oral history, leaving their mark on the land and in the collective consciousness itself. It is…

The latest ultimatum issued to Iran by President Donald Trump is due to end as this column appears. What happens next is anybody’s guess. The president might issue another ultimatum, I have lost count of how many he has issued in the past few weeks, or he might intensify his “special military…

Whenever the Sudanese army makes an advance that brings the prospect of ending the war into view, a new front opens, expanding the conflict and perpetuating it. From the early stages, arms have been flowing in from abroad across the borders of several neighboring countries. Recruits and…

Libya is suffering as a result of political divisions. Its fragmentation and geographic disintegration threaten its political and territorial integrity and unity. All parties heavily rely on vetoes, and there is a complete absence of consensus, or even basic agreement, on serving the national…

Some commentators have asked why the Iranian regime is striking airports, energy infrastructure, and shopping complexes in Gulf countries and then claimed these locations are foreign military bases! The real answer, of course, is that the Iranian regime knows full well what these sites contain…

When tensions run high, some actors tend to see military power as a swift path to redrawing balances or imposing new realities on the ground. Recent experiences have shown, time and again, that this is not the case: wars, especially in strategically sensitive regions, do not resolve crises; they…

I ask the reader to pardon me for recalling an image I had used years ago to characterize the relationship between Lebanon and Hezbollah: For decades, the Iranian and Assad Syrian regimes fed and stuffed a beast inside a small room, Lebanon. And the beast grew indeed, so much so that it hardly…

In theory, at least, the Arab majority is expected to take a clear stance against Iran over its aggression toward eight Arab countries – six in the Gulf – in addition to Iraq and Jordan. But reality is more complex and far less cohesive. We see some voices and movements not merely remaining silent…

With the escalation of the American-Israeli war on Iran, the question is no longer confined to the scale of the strikes and Iran’s retaliation. The potential repercussions of the conflict and the way in which it will reshape the regional order are now front and center. The assassinations of Supreme…