#Washington’s focus on #Gaza ’s future dominated this week’s #MiddleEast agenda — while debates over #Hezbollah 's disarmament and #Iraq ’s still-shifting political landscape kept the region on edge. Catch the insights inside Edition #64 of my newsletter here:
www.linkedin.com/pulse/64-120...
1974, #Kissinger to #Fahd, “It is our firm view that a strong #SaudiArabia is in the interest of the United States ... The #UnitedStates would never be indifferent to any threat to the Kingdom from the north or the south.” it continues in 2025.
calisphere.org/item/62595a0...
What is the oldest #US national emergency that is still current?
"I, JIMMY #Carter, President of the #UnitedStates, find that the situation in Iran constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security..." #Iran #hostage crisis.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5Sr...
Which countries do you exactly mean?
www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfe...
Like him or not, #Trump proved that a US president holds far more sway in global affairs than many assumed. One needs to think out of the box: When a group like Hamas ends up thanking a US president, you know the playbook has changed.
www.axios.com/2025/10/13/t...
Last week, the US had to deal with much pressure from even its closest allies like the UK and Germany as Trump greenlighted Netanyahu to go ahead with his plan to occupy Gaza. Here are all the headlines about the US foreign policy and the Middle East:
open.substack.com/pub/usinmena...
The essence of Trumpism is Trump, whatever he says and does. If he says regime change is good, it is good. When he says it is not good, it is not, as simple as that.
The more I look into #Trump's #Middle_East policy, the more I am convinced that #Trumpism is neither isolationism nor conservatism. It is just Trumpism. Both @TuckerCarlson and @LindseyGrahamSC get rebuked by Trump about the Middle East, especially about regime change idea
From this week on, I will add a new section to the #newsletter: Events that deal with the US foreign policy in the #MiddleEast.
On June 5th, there is an interesting one at #Chatham_House. Don't miss it! Find the registration link at the end of the newsletter.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/37-052...
A US Mercenary private firm set to oversee Gaza aid for Israel goes on LinkedIn hiring spree: a weird merge of war, aid, and business; an intersection of power, profit, and humanitarian relief!
www.middleeasteye.net/news/mercena...
Would like to be on the list, thanks!
This is the longest newsletter I have ever written. Not surprising! The US president paid a historic visit to the region last week. I would appreciate it if you could take a look at it. Many of them you all have heard, but now you can have an overall once-over.
usinmena.substack.com/p/us-in-mena...
Timeline of U.S. presidential visits to #Saudi_Arabia:
Roosevelt - 1945
Richard Nixon - 1974
Jimmy Carter - 1978
George H.W. Bush - 1990 and 1992
Bill Clinton - 1994
George W. Bush - 2008
Barack Obama - 2009, 2014, 2015, and 2016
Donald Trump - 2017
Joe Biden - 2022
Obama is #1. Not interesting?
The interesting thing about choosing #Michael_Anton to head the technical discussions for the #US-Iran_negotiations is that he has not studied physics, but #political_science. That is promising for those who studied political science and wish to find a job in #disarmament.
To be remembered later: the #US will not lift the chunk of its sanctions on #Iran until Iran complies with the US on regional issues. These negotiations will fail unless they expand to include issues other than Iran's nuclear program. Anything else said will not be reliable.
13- Biden was faced with a more urgent situation in #Ukraine to ease his grip on Iran during his term in office and if now, tensions in East Asia rise, Trump will do the same. [...]
12- To sum up, like many other situations, when it comes to #national_security, Dems and Reps move much closer to each other. The differences only exist because of different circumstances. [...]
11- Now, Petraeus says Israel did a great job of penetrating Iran’s air and ballistic missile defenses twice last year and the war will be promising for the US. Such estimation is like his greenlight for the Republican hardliners to go ahead with their plan of attack. [...]
10- the command and control, the jammers, the munitions, etc. They even thought about the food, fuel, and water. One can see how serious it was during Obama’s presidency!
One other similarity is his reliance on #Israel. Normally there is suspicion among Dems on Israel’s warmongering efforts. [...]
9- just two years after he promised in his electoral campaign to bring change and end the wars in the #Middle_East. And it was not just a plan on paper. They rehearsed their plan of attack with all the details like planes flying all the distances, the refuelers, [...]
8- Still, perhaps, the most important part of his interview was when he said “he actually developed the plan to destroy Iran's nuclear program over 15 years ago when he was the commander of the #US_Central_Command.” 15 years ago, it was Obama’s first term, [...]
7- while Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard believes that “ Iran is not currently building a nuclear weapon.” (www.newsweek.com/tulsi-gabbar...) Her assessment is placatory to the anti-war Dems, while his assessment is giving heads up in Washington. [...]
6- Neither of them is naïve. Iranians are not going to fall into a simple tramp and Trump is not fool enough to think so. Petraeus is saying that war is just behind the door. Third, he believes that Iran is close to building a nuclear weapon and remains “just one turn of the enrichment process”[...]
5- Second, Petraeus estimates that the US’s recent deployment of bombers to the strategic Indian Ocean airbase is not just an empty bluff; it is a real preparation for war. There might have been some optimism that this deployment of forces is a cheap shot to deter naïve officials in Tehran. [...]
4- Petraeus agrees with that conclusion too and believes that Iran will more likely retaliate, but then he concludes that the #US must not stop but go further to target Iran’s capabilities to retaliate. To those who think #Trump is too hawkish, this would catch them napping. [...]
3- how close #Democrats and #Republicans are when it comes to #Iran. Here are some of his gestures:
First, to those anti-war Dems, war with Iran is too dangerous to be practical (responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-iran-2...) [...]
2- The general sense says “of course”. #Obama rose to power to end the wars in the #MiddleEast. However, former #CENTCOM commander and #CIA chief David Petraeus said things in his recent interview (www.iranintl.com/en/202504059...) that reveal [...]
1- #Iran_US: Is Trump much more hawkish about Iran than Obama? [...]
At the end, I gave a presentation on the role of ICT in Iran.
Their research on space weather was incredible. Gosh! I even didn't hear the term. The chair that simulates different recent earthquakes in Japan was both funny and alarming.
