News on politics, security and defence in the Middle East and North Africa
By James M. Dorsey Israel ignores at its peril the increasingly bold writing on the wall. The writing suggests Israel’s US and European diplomatic and military defense shield, a fixture…
By James M. Dorsey Former CIA director and US defense secretary Leon Panetta hit a raw geopolitical nerve by recently labelling Israel’s alleged boobytrapping of Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah’s…
By James M. Dorsey What were they thinking? It’s a question both Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s ultra-nationalist government have yet to answer. Hamas and the Netanyahu government’s…
It has been a dispiriting time, these past few days, watching a succession of world leaders parrot to the UN General Assembly misinformation, half-truths and downright lies…
By James M. Dorsey Hezbollah and Iran are playing political and military defence in Lebanon. Militarily, Hezbollah has demonstrated that it may be down but is not out as a…
By James M. Dorsey Mohammad Ali al-Husseini personifies the complexity of escalating tensions tearing the Middle East apart. A onetime associate of Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah chief Israel killed, Mr.…
By James M. Dorsey Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has turned Iran’s asymmetric forward defense strategy into a double-edged sword. Please read further, listen to the podcast, or…
James M. Dorsey on ABC RN: Late Night Live Israel has killed the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, in a targeted bombing attack on Beirut. Many of Hezbollah’s weapons caches…
By James M. Dorsey Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is likely to discover that the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will not shift the paradigm of Middle East politics.…
By James M. Dorsey It will take a lot more to convince Israel and its supporters that newly elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian means business and can deliver on his…