The Other MoU: Launching a Europe-Gulf Resilience Initiative After the US-Iran Deal
The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the United States and Iran may have ended one of the most consequential Middle Eastern crises in decades, but it has not resolved the strategic problem it exposed. Whether the 60-day talks it set in motion will produce a final agreement remains far from certain.Yet the central lessons are already clear: Iran has preserved significant leverage, Washington has had to scale back its ambitions, and Europe and the Gulf face the prospect of protracted regional tension. Europe and the Gulf should therefore use the aftermath of the US-Iran deal to articulate their own “other MoU”: a Europe-Gulf Resilience initiative.
A Post-War Model for Verifying Iran’s Missile Arsenal
This study proposes a model for constraining and verifying Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal by employing a layered Strategic Verification Model with seven components: comprehensive baseline declarations; missile test and launch monitoring; intrusive inspections; quantitative and qualitative limits on missile capabilities; production controls, especially on solid-fuel manufacturing; a robust enforcement and compliance architecture; and regional confidence building measures.
The Houthis are a political-military faction and Zaydi religious movement founded in northwestern Yemen in the 1980s. A key member of Iran’s Axis of Resistance with links to other militant organizations in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, the group has continued to pose a threat to Western interests on a global scale.
This backgrounder provides an overview of how the Abraham Accords came about, the US interests involved, their economic and strategic consequences, and the prospects for further enlargement going forward.
After a decade of post-Arab Spring isolation, Turkey’s leaders have recognized that their ambition to position the country as an agenda-setter on the world stage requires active engagement in all directions. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s consolidation of executive authority has centralized foreign policy decision-making and tied it to his domestic political priorities, transforming the country’s revisionist approach to one shaped primarily by personal and pragmatic interests.
As the Western Sahara conflict reaches its fifth decade, the territorial dispute remains unresolved and largely unknown. MEI’s Intissar Fakir unpacks the Western Sahara’s complex history and the rival claims by Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. She examines recent developments, such as President Trump’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the territory and the collapse of a 30-year cease-fire, as well as the core questions that remain unanswered after half a century.
Podcasts
Middle East Focus
MEI’s flagship weekly podcast on US foreign policy and contemporary political and social issues in the Middle East.
MEI Senior Fellow Brian Katulis engages friends, colleagues, and policy experts in casual conversations on the most important happenings in the Middle East.
Haley Calls for Inspection of Iran’s Military Sites after I.A.E.A. Meeting
U.S. Ambassador to U.N. Nikki Haley said on Friday that the Trump administration wants inspection of Iran’s both military and non-military sites to ascertain Iran’s compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (J.C.P.O.A.) – the nuclear agreement Iran signed with the U.S. and five other world powers in July 2015. Haley made the remarks after returning from Vienna, where she discussed the issue with Yukiya Amano, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (I.A.E.A.). Speaking at the U.N., the top U.S.
Iran Discussing Joint Counterterrorism Measures with Regional States
The deputy chief of staff of Iran’s Armed Forces has revealed that the country has started discussions with certain states to joint fight terrorist in West Asia, the Iranian media reported. “The Islamic Republic of Iran is trying to uproot terrorism completely in the region in cooperation with other West Asian states; therefore, it has started contacts with the countries which herald establishment of tranquility in the sensitive West Asia region,” Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri said.
Al-Qaeda appears set to make a comeback in Pakistan, with battle-hardened militants returning from Syria and Iraq and eyeing for the resurrection of al-Qaeda in Pakistan.[i] A new terror group, Jamaat ul Ansar al-Shariah Pakistan, surfaced in June 2017, and is comprised of fighters who have returned from the Middle East.
Bahrain Says It Dismantled Terrorist Cell with Links to Iran’s I.R.G.C.
The Bahraini government said today that the country’s security forces have arrested seven members of a cell suspected of carrying out acts of terrorism in the island country, the Bahraini and Iranian media reported.
Iran Welcomes Qatar’s Decision to Return Its Ambassador to Tehran
Iran has welcomed the Qatari government’s decision to send its ambassador back to Tehran and restore full diplomatic relations between the two countries, the
Senior Iranian Official: U.S. Has Waged Economic War against Iran
A senior Iranian official has cautioned that the Trump administration has waged an economic war against the Islamic Republic, particularly targeting the country’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.). “If the Americans were able to attack Iran, they would have done so a few years ago,” Mohsen Rezaei, the Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, said at a gathering of members of the I.R.G.C. and Basij Force in Hamadan Province on Thursday. The former I.R.G.C.
Iran-Backed Al-Hashd al-Turkmani Group Playing Major Role in Tal Afar
A senior commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Force (P.M.F.) has announced that forces from al-Hashd al-Turkmani will play a major role in the military operation to liberate the city of Tal Afar from the Islamic State, Iran’s Fars News Agency reported today. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the chief operational commander and deputy head of the P.M.F., made the statement after meeting with the leaders of Hashd al-Turkmani, a P.M.F. unit close to Iran and strongly anti-American.
Turkey’s “Three Options” in Idlib amid Growing Tehran-Ankara Cooperation
Turkey has three options to tackle a looming threat to its national security emanating from the situation in Syria’s Idlib Province, according to an an
The Middle East Dialogue, a regional Track 1.5 group in which officials and non-officials from the region and beyond meet to discuss current issues in their personal capacities, met May 12-13 in Malta. Read the full report (PDF).
Tehran Raises Concern about Haley's Vienna Visit, Rules Out Inspection of Military Sites
Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has warned that U.S. Ambassador to U.N. Nikki Haley’s visit to Vienna is aimed at undermining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (J.C.P.O.A.) – the nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers two years ago. In a letter to International Atomic Energy Agency (I.A.E.A.) Director-General Yukiya Amano, Zarif asked the international watchdog not to disclose any sensitive and secretive information about Iran’s nuclear activities to Haley or any other third party.
Iraqi Kurdistan’s democratic future and stability is at risk, and one party and family is especially closely linked to the crisis. In recent years, the Barzani family and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (K.D.P.) have consolidated power while displaying indifference to rule of law when facing critics or uncooperative minorities. This creeping autocracy should urgently concern those hoping to see a stable new democracy in a troubled region. On September 25, the Kurdish region is due to hold its independence referendum.
Last night Donald J. Trump became the third consecutive U.S. president to ensure that his successor will also need to wage war in Afghanistan. This is justifiably frustrating to the American public, but unfortunately appropriate to the threats at hand.
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.
