Attiya Ahmad

French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks on Friday about Iran’s destabilizing role in the Middle East and controversial missile program provoked angry reactions in Tehran.

The U.S. Treasury Department today sanctioned a network of individuals and entities involved in counterfeiting Yemeni bank notes for the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and assisting I.R.G.C.’s destabilizing activities. The network is said to have produced hundreds of millions of dollars in fake Yemeni cash, using “deceptive measures” to circumvent European export restrictions to buy advanced equipment needed to print the money for the I.R.G.C.’s elite Quds Force.

November 15, 2017 – Panel 3 of MEI’s 71st Annual Conference, held at the Capital Hilton in Washington D.C.

Panelists:

Simon Henshaw
Acting assistant secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, U.S. Department of State

Michael Klosson
Vice president for policy and humanitarian response, Save the Children

Clare Lockhart
Director, Institute for State Effectiveness

Hideki Matsunaga
Adviser to the Chief Economist, Middle East and North Africa, The World Bank

November 15, 2017 – Panel 4 of MEI’s 71st Annual Conference, held at the Capital Hilton in Washington D.C.

Panelists:

Rania Al-Mashat
Advisor, International Monetary Fund

Fawziah Bakr al-Bakr
University professor; columnist, Al Jazeera

Wafa Ben Hassine
MENA policy counsel, Access Now

Hind Aboud Kabawat
Member, Syrian High Negotiations Committee

Nafeesa Syeed (moderator)
National security reporter, Bloomberg

The war in Afghanistan has dragged on for 16 years, appearing to many Americans to have no end in sight or positive outcome. However, as Defense Secretary James Mattis recently testified, “Violence and progress in Afghanistan continue to coexist.” What is that progress, and what does it mean for Afghans themselves? Saad Mohseni, chairman and CEO of Moby Media Group, and Ahmad Majidyar, director of MEI’s IranObserved project, join host Paul Salem to discuss the positive changes taking place in the country.

November 15, 2017 – Panel 1 of MEI’s 71st Annual Conference, held at the Capital Hilton in Washington D.C.

Panelists:

Gen. John H. Allen
President, The Brookings Institution

Philip Gordon
Senior fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

Nancy Lindborg
President, United States Institute of Peace

Juan Zarate
Chairman and co-founder, Financial Integrity Network

Mary Louise Kelly (moderator)
National security correspondent, National Public Radio

November 15, 2017 – Panel 2 of MEI’s 71st Annual Conference, held at the Capital Hilton in Washington D.C.

Panelists:

Amb. (ret.) Gerald Feierstein
Director for Gulf affairs and government relations, MEI

Randa Slim
Director for conflict resolution and Track II dialogues, MEI

Jonathan Winer
Scholar, MEI

Amb. (ret.) Robert Ford
Senior fellow, MEI

Paul Salem (moderator)
Senior vice president for policy research and programs, MEI

There was a time when Lebanon was a Syrian protectorate occupied by the Syrian Army. The Syrian war over the past six years, however, has somewhat reversed the roles – transforming Lebanese Hezbollah into a leading military force in Syria. Hezbollah has not only deployed thousands of its forces to fight in Syria, but it has also begun recruiting Syrian nationals.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman has rejected media reports that the British government’s willingness to pay Iran a decades-long debt of about $600 million is related to the potential release of a British mother jailed by the Islamic Republic. “The case of Nazanin Zaghari and the issue of the debt payment to Iran by the British government are separate matters,” Bahram Ghassemi told the Islamic Students’ News Agency today. “Ms.

The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey will hold a trilateral meeting on Syria next week.

With ISIS on the brink of defeat, Tehran and Damascus say the next phase of the conflict in Syria is for the “resistance forces” to confront the U.S. military and its local allies, particularly the Syrian Democratic Force (S.D.F.). They have dialed up anti-American propaganda and warn that a “direct confrontation” with the U.S. will be necessary if Washington decides to keep its troops in Syria for the long haul.

Seizure of Abu Kamal

The war in Yemen is reshaping the armed forces of Arab Gulf states. It is the first time that Emirati and Saudi elite units are leading a war effort in their bid to counter Yemeni Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as well as a counterterrorism campaign against jihadi groups, mainly Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).