President Biden may well succeed in forging an Israeli-Palestinian peace by restating in the strongest terms that a two-state solution remains the only viable option and works to create the conditions on the ground to that end. Righting the Wrong The US remains the indispensable power that can bring both Israel and the Palestinians to…
The Biden administration’s new Middle East strategy is forcing regional powers to reassess their geostrategic interests and act in a manner that might end several conflicts that have plagued the region Righting the wrong When Biden was running for president, he made it clear that if elected he would chart a new course in addressing…
Erdogan’s decision to withdraw Turkey from the 2011 Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combatting Violence Against Women is by far the most despicable turn he has yet taken against women Righting the Wrong It is hard to find something more scornful than Erdogan’s sudden decision to withdraw Turkey from the Council of Europe…
Tragically, the entire international community has failed miserably to muster the moral courage to end the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in Syria’s civil war. Is it any wonder that such atrocities are happening time and again? Righting the wrong The ten-year old civil war in Syria has gone far…
While tens of thousands of Yemeni men, women and children are dying from starvation and disease, the world is shamelessly watching with deafening silence Righting the Wrong The bombing continues unabated. The explosions are heard in the distance. A family with seven children is cowering in fear in a corner of their shack, Daring not…
Recently I had an opportunity to brief a group of European diplomats and journalists on a variety of conflicts, with a focus on the Middle East. During the Q&A I was asked which of the region’s conflicts Biden should tackle first. Without much hesitation I said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not only because it is over…
The recent agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, brokered by the US, to normalize economic relations between the two countries fell short of the needed reconciliation process that would lead to full recognition of Kosovo’s independence by Serbia. Some elements of the economic normalization agreement are positive, including operationalizing the peace highway and the rail link…
Recently, I met with a group of officials from different countries who came to the US to learn about our political system and the decision-making process regarding US foreign policy under the Trump administration. Had I been asked this question while Presidents Obama or Bush were in office, I could have answered with some specificity…
Those who applaud the assassination of General Soleimani seem to simply equate him to a terrorist who certainly deserved to meet his fate. The question here is not whether he deserved to be killed, but can his killing be equated to those of Osama Bin Laden or Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leaders of al-Qaeda and…