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Word of Caution On Assad’s Fall ‎

By December 18, 2011
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Defense Minister Ehud Barak was reported this week as predicting that the regime of Bashar Assad would fall within weeks. Certainly things are not going well for the Assad family dictatorship. The bloodletting continues as the Free Syrian Army and other insurgent groups continue to strike at government forces. Economic sanctions endorsed by the Arab League are to take effect December 27. The economy is expected to sharply contract in the year ahead, in the wake of EU sanctions already in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Iraq, Middle East Politics, Syria

Iran Strikes Across Border into Iraqi Kurdistan

By July 21, 2011
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A border dispute between Iran and the Kurdish region of Iraq underwent a significant escalation this week, as Iranian Revolutionary Guards crossed the border to engage with guerrillas of the  PJAK (Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan) organization. The incursions began on Saturday night. Fighting continued throughout most of Sunday.  By late Sunday afternoon, a tense quiet had returned to the border area. Reports differ regarding the number of casualties, and the areas of engagement. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GLORIA, Iran, Iraq

That Familiar Feeling

By July 13, 2011
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Amid the recent upheavals in the Arab world, one country has largely escaped attention. That country is Iraq. However, the absence of anything attributable to the Arab Spring within its borders should not lead to the conclusion that all is tranquil in the land of the two rivers. As the United States prepares to withdraw, Iran and its regional allies and proxies are ramping up their campaign to impose the look of defeat on the pullout. This is part of a larger, ongoing effort by Iran to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GLORIA, Iran, Iraq, U.S. Policy on the Middle East, Understanding the Middle East Tagged With: , , , ,

Hizballah Brags About Waging War on America; The U.S. Government Ignores It

By July 4, 2011

By Barry RubinSometimes a big scoop is lying in plain sight and this often happens nowadays because either the mass media does not pick up a big story or the experts don’t properly analyze it. So while what I am about to tell you has been in the public domain for more than three years, it is of tremendous policy importance yet has been totally neglected:Hizballah, the Shia group that now dominates Lebanon’s new government, is at war with the United States in Iraq.Consider that this fact—as … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Hizballah, Iraq

Fire From the Mountain

By October 31, 2010

We depend on your contributions. Tax-deductible donation through PayPal or credit card: click Donate button, upper-right hand corner of this page. By check: "American Friends of IDC." "For GLORIA Center" on memo line. Mail: American Friends of IDC, 116 East 16th St., 11th Floor, NY, NY 10003. Our PKK contact and driver arrived at the appointed time outside the hotel in Erbil. We had been told he would identify himself using an agreed term. We hadn't quite been ready for the fact that this … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Iran, Iraq, Turkey

Faked Photograph Shows How the Middle East Hasn’t Changed Much

By July 26, 2010

By Barry Rubin Ah, the good old days. It's March 1958. In Egypt, President Gamal Abdel Nasser is mobilizing the Arab street to overthrow more traditional or moderate regimes, spouting anti-Western demagoguery.One of the main such is in Iraq, the government of Nuri al-Said.How can the Iraqis compete with Nasser, knowing that they have to counter his propaganda or die? Simple! The Israeli boogy-man. (How things have--not--changed!) So an Iraqi newspaper publishes the photo below, a clumsy forgery … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Understanding the Middle East

Nations Must Know When to Cringe and Crawl–But for the West It’s Becoming Routine

By March 18, 2010

Click here to receive GLORIA Center articles directly to your inbox. Sometimes selective appeasement is necessary in foreign policy. But when and just how far should a democratic country go in such behavior? Here's a brilliant defense of giving in at times-which doesn't mean I necessarily agree with it, but I do respect it-and a recent example of how it's overdone and mistakenly carried out nowadays. The Times of London article is by George Walden, a former British diplomat and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Iraq, Radical Movements, U.S. Policy on the Middle East

Explaining the U.S.-Israel Crisis

By March 16, 2010

Click here to receive GLORIA Center articles directly to your inbox.It is important to understand that the current controversy over construction in east Jerusalem is neither a public relations' problem nor a bilateral policy dispute. It arises because of things having nothing directly to do with this specific point. What are the real issues involved: 1. The U.S. and most European governments are determined not to criticize the Palestinian Authority's (PA) sabotage of the peace process. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Iraq, Israel, Israel-Palestinian Issues, Radical Movements, Syria, U.S. Policy on the Middle East

Will Obama Have an Iraq Crisis?

By March 2, 2010

Click here to receive GLORIA Center articles directly to your inbox. If-and I repeat, if--this story is true it is going to be a very big development that may, as they like to see in the television promos, change the Obama administration forever. According to Thomas Ricks, the former Washington Post military correspondent, General Raymond Odierno, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, is asking for an additional combat brigade to be put into Kirkuk and to stay beyond Obama's August 2010 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Iraq, U.S. Policy on the Middle East

The Real Arab Stuff: Hussain Abdul Hussain Explains It All to You

By March 1, 2010

Click here to receive GLORIA Center articles directly to your inbox.Hussain Abdul Hussain gets it. He's one of the most interesting Arab journalists and he also writes in English. His latest article-published in the "Huffington Post"-entitled "Lonely Obama vs. Popular Iran" [but you don't have to use the link as I quoted practically all of it] he points out what the most realistic people and more moderate rulers in the Arabic-speaking world are thinking. He explains what I've been telling you … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Iran, Iraq, Syria, U.S. Policy on the Middle East, Understanding the Middle East
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