Jordan’s Economy Weathers Iran War’s Shocks and Finds New Opportunities
In the summer of 2003, King Abdullah II told Bloomberg Jordan sits “between Iraq and a hard place,” a play on words designed to describe the kingdom’s challenging environment to an American audience amid the US-led Iraq war to the east and the lingering Palestinian-Israeli conflict to the west. Jordan is grappling with a much “harder place” today.
Proponents of the war with Iran have taken recent increases in crude-oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz as proof that the US strategy is finally working. President Trump is so confident in this that he recently rejected a seven-day plan, set forward by Iran’s foreign ministry, to end the war and open the strait. The United States is “winning tremendously,” Trump boasted.
The Mecca Alliance Meets the Red Sea – Saudi Arabia’s New Defense Pact Faces Its First Major Test
When Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan agreed to a mutual defense pact in August, it was principally seen as a political commitment. The “Mecca alliance,” as it was dubbed, stipulated that an armed attack on one would be treated as an attack on all three, accompanied by deeper military cooperation.
When King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and his foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, issued unequivocal pledges of support for Egypt’s military government and its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, their move was widely depicted in the news media as a logical extension of the kingdom’s opposition to revolutionary movements in the Arab world. This simplistic view overlooks the fact that Saudi Arabia has responded differently to different uprisings—it supports the rebels in Syria, helped to crush them in Bahrain—and that aligning itself with Egypt’s new rulers could be a risky strategy.
The Iranian diaspora in Malaysia is a diverse and vibrant community of educators, students, artists, and entrepreneurs. The following essays provide snapshots of the historical and cultural connections between Iran and Malaysia, as well as the personal and professional experiences and creative output of some of the members of this community.
Iranians in Malaysia: Artist Asghar Yaghoubi and His "Journey Within"
Artist Asghar Yaghoubi, who was born in Shiraz, Iran, moved to Malaysia in 2008. An accomplished painter and sculptor, he also teaches art at the Cube Gallery, of which he is the founder and director. The gallery is the first and only art gallery in Southeast Asia owned by an Iranian.
Iranians in Malaysia: Batik Artist Pegah Jahangiri
Artist Pegah Jahangiri hails from Tehran, but is currently a doctoral student in visual arts at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. She recently spoke to MEI about her work with batik, strikingly dyed cloth found all over the world, but particularly popular and refined in Southeast Asia.
The Iranian Diaspora in Malaysia: Emergent Pluralism
The Iranian diaspora in Malaysia is incredibly diverse. Supporters of the Green Movement, students, individuals who fast and pray and those who do not know the direction of the qibla, clerics who promote secularism and those who promote the authority of the vilayat-i faqih, Iranian Kurds, Turks, and Arabs, journalists, artists, and environmentalists: all these—and more—constitute the community of Iranians who have fled or quietly moved to Malaysia.
Oman is strategically positioned across the Gulf of Oman from Iran, north of Yemen, and east of Saudi Arabia. It has arguably been able to secure its rapid economic growth—spurred by oil riches—by maintaining neutral, if not friendly, relations with these neighbors, including Iran. Yet while Oman has successfully kept itself neutral, it still inhabits a precarious location. It shares with Iran the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that Iran has threatened to close due to its charged relations with the GCC countries and the United States, who rely on the Strait to transport oil to world markets.
The Middle East Institute Center for Turkish Studies’ Fourth Annual Conference on TurkeyPanel 4: The Turkey-Iran-Iraq NexusHenri J. Barkey, Lehigh UniversityAlireza Nader, RAND CorporationDenise Natali, National Defense UniversityModerator: Phebe Marr, Author and HistorianJune 14, 2013 3:30pm-5:00 pm
The Middle East Institute Center for Turkish Studies’ Fourth Annual Conference on TurkeyPanel 4: The Turkey-Iran-Iraq NexusHenri J. Barkey, Lehigh UniversityAlireza Nader, RAND CorporationDenise Natali, National Defense UniversityModerator: Phebe Marr, Author and HistorianJune 14, 2013 3:30pm-5:00 pm
The Middle East Institute Center for Turkish Studies’ Fourth Annual Conference on TurkeyPanel 4: The Turkey-Iran-Iraq NexusHenri J. Barkey, Lehigh UniversityAlireza Nader, RAND CorporationDenise Natali, National Defense UniversityModerator: Phebe Marr, Author and HistorianJune 14, 2013 3:30pm-5:00 pm
The Middle East Institute Center for Turkish Studies’ Fourth Annual Conference on TurkeyPanel 4: The Turkey-Iran-Iraq NexusHenri J. Barkey, Lehigh UniversityAlireza Nader, RAND CorporationDenise Natali, National Defense UniversityModerator: Phebe Marr, Author and HistorianJune 14, 2013 3:30pm-5:00 pm
The Middle East Institute Center for Turkish Studies’ Fourth Annual Conference on TurkeyPanel 4: The Turkey-Iran-Iraq NexusHenri J. Barkey, Lehigh UniversityAlireza Nader, RAND CorporationDenise Natali, National Defense UniversityModerator: Phebe Marr, Author and HistorianJune 14, 2013 3:30pm-5:00 pm
This piece was originally published by ForeignAffairs.com on January 15, 2013
Assertions and opinions in this publication are solely those of the above-mentioned author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Middle East Institute, which expressly does not take positions on Middle East policy.
The oldest peer-reviewed publication dedicated to the study of the modern Middle East, MEI’s flagship journal covers politics, society, and culture in the region.
