Shehab Al Makahleh To diagnose Arab issues, one should first address two concepts: nation-building and state-building. For more than 80 years, Arabs have lost their real identity due to hundreds of years of colonialism and regional conflicts. Nation building has been used to refer to multilateral and bilateral …
Read More »Arabs between MESA, the ultimatum deal and normalization
By Shehab Al Makahleh Few days ago, a seminar was held in Israel to assess the strategic situation in the region from Israeli perspective. A group of senior experts in politics and strategies presented several papers. The conference concluded with one statement: What is happening in the region …
Read More »The clash between the United States and the Russian Federation on strategic nuclear weapons
Giancarlo Elia Valori On October 20 last the US President, Donald J. Trump, stated that North America would withdraw from the INF Treaty on nuclear missile weapons, which means that Europe will be again the main base for the new intermediate and long-range weapon systems. Obviously the European …
Read More »A Royal Reshuffle?
Abdel Bari Atwan Many questions were raised about the prolonged stay in London of Prince Ahmad Bin-Abdelaziz, youngest of the seven Sudairi sons of Saudi Arabia’s founding monarch – especially after he told a group of protestors outside his residence that they should not blame the ruling family as …
Read More »Will Moscow host Syria-Israel peace talks?
Shehab Al Makahleh Russian sources believe that Moscow would play the role of a peace mediator between Israel and Syria, benefitting from the current situation in the Middle East and the political status in both Damascus and Tel Aviv in the aftermath of the opening of the Qunaitra …
Read More »Restructuring Libya’s finance and economy
Giancarlo Elia Valori Last August the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) moved its Tripoli’s offices to the now famous Tripoli Tower. The traditional financial institution of Gaddafi’s regime currently manages approximately 67 billion US dollars, most of which are frozen due to the UN sanctions. Said sanctions shall be …
Read More »Why China retains upper hand in Africa despite France, US ambitions
Shehab Al Makahleh China’s ambitions in African countries are on the rise. Beijing’s annual trade with African states exceeded $250 billion at a time Chinese firms and companies have heavily invested in constructing roads, railways and other building complexes as well as factories to better use the resource-rich …
Read More »Italy’s and EU’s natural gas imports from the United States
Giancarlo Elia Valori Currently natural gas is one of the most important US assets in its relations with the European Union. In fact, President Trump and President Jean Claude Juncker spoke at length about it during their last meeting at the White House at the end of July …
Read More »Congress Is Forcing a Confrontation With Saudi Arabia
Mohammad Bazzi On October 2, Jamal Khashoggi, a well-known critic of the government of Saudi Arabia, walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain paperwork he needed to get married. He never walked out. Since then, Washington’s foreign-policy establishment has begun turning against Mohammed bin Salman, the …
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