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Salam Kawakibi

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Trump’s Curious Multilateralism
  • Analysis
  • Trump’s Curious Multilateralism

    His administration may end up besting its predecessors’ records in bringing partners together in the Persian Gulf.

    February 4, 2020

    As Turkey-Russia ties warm, will Georgia be left out in the cold?
    Foreign Minister of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu (L) meets Foreign Minister of Georgia David Zalkaliani (R) in Tbilisi, Georgia on December 23, 2019.
  • Analysis
  • As Turkey-Russia ties warm, will Georgia be left out in the cold?

    Turkey’s blossoming relationship with Russia has not only raised eyebrows in Washington and Western European capitals, it has also caused a great deal of discomfort in countries like Georgia that have borne the brunt of Russian aggression. A few recent scattered signals from Ankara, however, might comfort Turkey’s northeastern neighbor.

    A fight for survival in a new landscape: Can Yemen’s GPC recover after Saleh?
    Yemen's ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh gives a speech addressing his supporters during a rally as his General People's Congress party, marks 35 years since its founding, at Sabaeen Square in the capital Sanaa on August 24, 2017.
  • Analysis
  • A fight for survival in a new landscape: Can Yemen’s GPC recover after Saleh?

    Since the death of its founder Ali Abdullah Saleh on Dec. 4, 2017, the General People’s Congress (GPC) — Yemen’s dominant political party for the past four decades — has faced a test in attempting to reunify its divided wings in Riyadh, Cairo, Abu Dhabi, and Sanaa amid a shifting strategic landscape. The GPC’s factions have competed over the party leadership, failed to elect a transitional leader, and exchanged accusations following the Saudi-brokered meeting in Jeddah in July 2019. Nevertheless, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh’s attempts to revive Saleh’s damaged old political vehicle continue, both politically and militarily.

    February 4, 2020

    What Makes a Movement Violent: Comparing the Ahle Hadith (Salafists) in India and Pakistan
     (Photo by Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images)
  • Analysis
  • What Makes a Movement Violent: Comparing the Ahle Hadith (Salafists) in India and Pakistan

    This article examines the Salafist movements in Pakistan and North India (known as the Ahle Hadith movement), which originated in the colonial era in India. The article seeks to explain what led Salafist/Ahle Hadith organizations in Pakistan, though not those in India, to adopt violence.

    February 4, 2020

    Turkey’s Parliamentary Purge and the HDP’s Dilemma
    A picture shows election flags displaying imprisoned Selahattin Demirtas, Presidential candidate and leader of People's Democratic Party (HDP) in Ankara, on June 19, 2018.
  • Analysis
  • Turkey’s Parliamentary Purge and the HDP’s Dilemma

    In 2016 the Turkish parliament voted to revoke parliamentary immunity and initiated the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) political purge of MPs with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). Despite the introduction of a new assembly in 2018, Turkey’s October invasion of northeast Syria provided ample incentives for the launch of new investigations into HDP members protesting the operation. The targeting of the HDP has set new legal and political precedents that could undermine the political capacity of the opposition coalition as a whole and create ideological divisions over the so-called “Kurdish Question.” This report records documented arrests of HDP MPs from June 2016 to January 2018 in order to identify prominent trends and waves of arrests that correspond to political and legal events.

    February 4, 2020

    Lebanon’s inconvenient truths: A brief rejoinder
    Anti-government protesters demonstrate ahead of the expected naming of a new cabinet tomorrow by Prime Minister Designate Hassan Diab, on January 16, 2020 in Beirut, Lebanon.
  • Commentary
  • Lebanon’s inconvenient truths: A brief rejoinder

    In response to numerous comments from readers about his article “Lebanon’s inconvenient truths,” author Bilal Saab has published a brief rejoinder.

    February 3, 2020

    Idlib tests Turkey-Russia ties
    A Turkish military convoy of tanks and armoured vehicles passes through the Syrian town of Dana, east of the Turkish-Syrian border in the northwestern Syrian Idlib province, on February 2, 2020.
  • Commentary
  • Idlib tests Turkey-Russia ties

    The escalating tensions between Turkey and Russia over Idlib did not come as a surprise to many outside the Turkish capital.

    In Syria, we’re getting counter-terrorism all wrong
    Syrian families, who have been forced to displace due to the ongoing attacks carried out by Assad regime and Russia, are seen on their way to safer zones with their belongings, at Atme camps in Idlib, Syria on January 19, 2020.
  • Analysis
  • In Syria, we’re getting counter-terrorism all wrong

    While proclamations of ISIS’s defeat were certainly premature, international policy and attention on countering terrorism in Syria has since declined — as if to suggest that the job is done. In fact, as 2020 sets in, the world seems to be getting counter-terrorism all wrong in Syria, in three interlinked ways.

    Why Jordan was so quick to reject Trump’s peace plan
    Thousands of Jordanians protested on Friday against President Trump's Middle East Peace Plan on January 31, 2020 in Amman, Jordan.
  • Analysis
  • Why Jordan was so quick to reject Trump’s peace plan

    Jordan’s response to President Donald Trump’s so-called “deal of the century” has been quick and unequivocal. Less than an hour after the release of the peace plan at a White House ceremony on Jan. 28, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi issued a statement in which he reiterated Amman’s support for the two-state solution and the Arab Peace Initiative (API) as the only path to a just and lasting settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, without referring directly to the Trump proposal.

    February 3, 2020

    Arab states unanimously reject Trump plan
    Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas (3rd-L) and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Secretary-General Saeb Erekat (2nd-L) look on as Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit (L) reads a statement during an Arab League emergency meeting discussing the US-brokered proposal for a settlement of the Middle East conflict, at the league headquarters in the Egyptian capital Cairo on February 1, 2020.
  • Commentary
  • Arab states unanimously reject Trump plan

    The communiqué, while largely symbolic, was nonetheless a major victory for Abbas’ beleaguered leadership.

    February 3, 2020

    Iraq’s protests: Durability and sustainability
    Iraqi students, waving national flags, join anti-government protests in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf in central Iraq on January 28, 2020.
  • Analysis
  • Iraq’s protests: Durability and sustainability

    The protest movement in Iraq is now entering its fourth month. The protests raging across most of the south of the country have remained non-sectarian in their tone and message, and the movement is steadfast in its rejection of the political order, and all members of the political elite.

    January 31, 2020

    FBI probes NSO Group
    An Israeli woman uses her iPhone in front of the building housing the Israeli NSO group, on August 28, 2016, in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv.
  • Commentary
  • FBI probes NSO Group

    Reuters reported on Jan. 30 that the FBI has been investigating Israeli spyware firm NSO Group since 2017. The revelation comes after Sen. Chris Murphy and UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard called on the U.S. to investigate the apparent hacking of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s phone by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In its statement, the UN identified NSO Group as a likely source of the malware.

    January 31, 2020