World News Insights: Opinion Articles

January has painful connotations in Tehran. Iran cannot forget what happened on the third of that month in 2020. A man far away crossed what it considered a red line. Qasem Soleimani was killed near Baghdad Airport. The commander of the Quds Force, the architect of the "proxies strategy" and the…

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s impending return to the White House has raised hopes among some African leaders, who expect it could lead to more investment, more trade deals and less lecturing on issues like democracy and human rights. Until now, Trump’s most memorable pronouncements on Africa…

Sense and political realism oblige writers to contain their emotions and focus on methodology and intellect, expressing joys and sorrows cautiously and only within reason. However, if our brief time on this earth is measured against history, we can bear witness to exceptional events worthy of…

When Bashar al-Assad lost control of the oil-rich areas in eastern Syria, most of which came under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), he turned to Iran for oil and its derivatives to enable his forces to continue fighting and to maintain services in the areas under his rule. For…

As the new year begins, think tanks and policy circles start buzzing with ideas about “the future” of Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Yemen, in short, the Middle East. Some futurologists prefer to talk of a “new Middle East” made possible by the “liberation” of Syria, the near annihilation of Hamas and…

We have been hit with two earthquakes since October 7, 2023: Operation "Al-Aqsa Flood" and Operation "Deterrence of Aggression." jointly and in opposition to one another the two operations have changed almost everything in the Levant and reshaped the broader Middle East. One fundamental…

January 9th, the date set for the parliamentary session to elect a president for the Lebanese Republic, is one weekaway. If successful, it would end a vacancy that has gone on for 26 months, and this is not the time for gray choices. More than ever before, the president must be someone “whose…

As the new year begins, observers ponder the dynamics and changes influencing decision-makers around the globe to ascertain whether the world of tomorrow will be immersed in peace, or buried in wars?! The first question is tied to global cooperation to enhance security, which has reached…

Whatever you hear about the United States as a fading power, it is ahead in the race to gain dominance in artificial intelligence over China, its major rival. That’s a product of Silicon Valley’s unique ability to bring together scientists, entrepreneurs and risk capital. Yet the prospect of…

This new year brings nothing new. The weight of other days, weeks and months is quickly coming and stacking up over what came before. The only exception is that current US President Joe Biden will exit the stage permanently on January 20, 2025, making way for the arrival of a man who has been…

I had previously questioned the depth of Tehran’s relationship with Bashar al-Assad, as he considered it his pillar of support. It saved him in 2014 but failed after ten years. In the final weeks of his life, Hafez al-Assad decided in March 2000 to negotiate with Israel. He was in a hurry,…

Nothing has harmed our conception of the Levant’s affairs, and the affairs of those of us who live in it, more than a succession of theories that sprung from divergent intellectual traditions but came to the same practical conclusion. Sectarianism (along with ethnic loyalties) was the primary…