Shahmahmood Miakhel

When President Donald Trump announced that the United States would move its embassy to Jerusalem on December 6, 2017, he effectively recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This essay examines India’s response to this development, in the broader context of its evolving relationship with Israel and with the United States.

The creation and expansion of Iranian-backed “resistance” forces in Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Yemen and Lebanon serve Iran’s national security interests and have created panic in Israel, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said today.

In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Gerald Feierstein, Alex Vatanka, Nathan Stock, and Randa Slim provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including the Senate’s decision to pull out of Yemen, enduring Iran-Pakistan political strain, Egypt’s role in Palestinian reconciliation, and America’s dissolving influence in Syria.

Read the full article on The National Interest 

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Ground Force (IRGC-GF) said today that its troops foiled attempts buy suicide bombers trying to attack one of its bases in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan near the Pakistani border,

President Donald Trump’s potential meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has drawn a great deal of attention in Tehran. Iranian media outlets and analysts debate how the historic summit could impact US policy vis-à-vis the Islamic Republic. Many articles, particularly in reformist publications, warn that a possible thaw in Washington-Pyongyang relations would help the Trump administration to pursue a more assertive policy against Tehran.

The spokesman of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, a militia unit within Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Force (PMF) with close ties with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, welcomed Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s decree giving PMF members equal salaries and benefits as those of regular military personnel, but emphasized that the PMF paramilitary forces will will not be merged into any of the country’s security institutions. According to AAH spokesman Naim al-Abudi, the PMF – also known by its Arabic name Hashd al-Shaabi – has 140,000 members, including 122,000 combatants.

As Palestinians confront U.S. President Donald Trump’s “deal of the century,” the debilitating effect of endemic, internal division within their ranks continues to define their domestic political landscape. 

The Middle East is the world’s most arid region and the one most dependent on renewable freshwater resources that originate outside its territories. These resources are largely contained in the Nile, Euphrates-Tigris, and Jordan river basins. An international law-based approach to transboundary watercourse development and management is vital for human security and regional stability. Applying legal principles in the Nile Basin is imperative, as unilateral actions by upstream countries can harm livelihoods on a large scale in downstream countries and destabilize their economies.

Scores of angry Iranian farmers clashed with local security forces in the central province of Isfahan over a water dispute, the BBC Persian reported. The police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, who were chanting antigovernment slogans.

A summit of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo called on Iran to stop its “expansionist policies” and interference in the internal affairs of the Arab countries – drawing an angry response from the Iranian foreign ministry.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi yesterday issued a decree on the inclusion of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in the country’s security forces, the Iranian and Lebanese media reported. According to the Abadi’s order, the paramilitary forces, also known by its Arabic name Hashd al-Shaabi, will receive equivalent salaries and other benefits as the country’s military personnel under the Ministry of Defense. The PMF forces from now on also can enroll in military colleges and institutions and will be subject to the country’s military service laws and regulations.

Irina Zvyagelskaya, of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and Randa Slim, director of MEI’s Program on Conflict Resolution and Track II Dialogues, join host Paul Salem to discuss U.S. and Russian efforts to find shared interests in the region, from Syria to Yemen, and to avoid confrontation and escalation.

Saudi-Turkish relations hit a new low point this week after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman referred to Turkey as part of a “triangle of evil” alongside Iran and Islamic extremists.

Since 2014, the Middle East Institute (MEI) has convened the Middle East Dialogue, a Track 1.5 initiative involving current and former officials and senior experts from across the Middle East as well as from China, Europe, Russia and the United States. These meetings focus on the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and on the principles and architecture of a new regional cooperation framework in the Middle East. At the Dialogue’s most recent meeting in Baghdad, the group issued a consensus document outlining Good Neighborhood Principles for the Middle East.