By Mnar Muhawesh Prior to its signing in New Zealand in February, the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership was the subject of years of top-secret negotiations. Of course, it’s hard to keep a big secret, secret for long. In November 2013, WikiLeaks released the draft of the entire chapter on …

The world is teetering on the edge of a wider war in Syria, experts say; the question remains whether Saudi Arabia and Turkey’s saber-rattling on Syria’s borders are just a form of psychological intimidation or part of a NATO strategy aimed at launching a foreign intervention. One by one, …

Syrian Ground and Air Forces have reportedly obliterated Daesh strongholds to the east of the city of Aleppo; scores of militants were killed and wounded. Smoke & Guns: Syrian Army Goes Ahead in Raqqa Province The Syrian Army, supported by the country’s Air Force, has attacked Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) strongholds …

Abbas Parvardeh Although a few rounds of negotiations have been so far held to forge some sort of agreement between the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his opposition through mediation of the United Nations and some Western governments, in reality, those people who have attended the …

Nasrullah Brohi The recent rash of the political crisis and the tension between Saudi Arabia and the Iran has far-reaching consequences for the rest of the region, particularly the Middle East. The respective outrage by both Saudi Arabia and Iran with regard to the pursuance of their respective …

By Mohammad Khajouei   One year has passed since Salman bin Abdulaziz became the king of Saudi Arabia. It was last January when he ascended to the throne following the demise of his brother, King Abdullah, and this development was a beginning to fundamental changes in Saudi Arabia’s …

Nawaf Obaid Last week, the spokesman for the Saudi military, General Ahmed Asseri, announced that Saudi Arabia is “is ready to participate in any ground operations that the coalition (against Islamic State) may agree to carry out in Syria” and that its decision to move into the war-torn …

We are going through a period that will define future features of the US-GCC ties. To be able to form an idea about how best, from both sides’ perspectives, could these ties be shaped, we have to gloss quickly over some of the past and present problems before …

When peace talks were arranged to put an end to the years-long Syrian crisis, there were some questionable parties slated to sit at the negotiating table in Geneva. Before those talks were postponed in February as fighting escalated in Syria, media buzzed, describing theSyrian opposition leading the talks …