In The News

New York Times: US Vision for Mideast – For Now

Declan Walsh and David E. Sanger January 11, 2019
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo followed the lead of former US President Barack Obama by visiting a Cairo university to present a vision of US foreign policy in the Middle East. A global audience can only conclude that the United States is an unreliable partner due to a polarized electorate, failing with consistent long-turn strategy, and perhaps for the short term, too, as Trump administration...

Reuters: Erdoğan Rebukes US Security Adviser

Steve Holland and Orhan Coskun January 8, 2019
Donald Trump announced plans to withdraw US troops from Syria, adding that the Islamic State had been defeated. This followed a December telephone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who offered assurances that Turkey would manage final stages of the military campaign. Turkey and the United States, both NATO members, disagree about terms for the withdrawal. John Bolton, the US...

The Nation: Saudi Teen’s Fate Hangs in Balance

January 7, 2019
Saudi women resist the religious restrictions imposed in their homeland. In addition to clothing requirements and arranged marriages, women cannot study, travel or work without permission from male relatives. Women also lack full voting, property or inheritance rights. Globalization of travel and communications ensures that Saudi women assess freedoms for women around the globe, with some fleeing...

Al Jazeera: US Announces Syria Pullout

Andrew Wilks December 20, 2018
Syria’s civil war began in 2011 and soon attracted extremists and foreign powers including NATO members Turkey and the US as well as Russia and Iran who support the Assad regime in Syria. The US and Turkey have vehemently disagreed over the role of Syrian Democratic Forces, Kurdish fighters supported by the US and key to containing Islamic State terrorists. Turkey’s president regards the Kurdish...

Chronicle of Higher Education: MIT-Saudi Partnerships

Steven Johnson December 12, 2018
Organizations of all types are reviewing partnerships with Saudi Arabia since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was among the first universities to review ties, including $25 million for MIT research from Saudi Aramco. Gifts from Saudi donors account for about 40 percent of overall spending in recent years,...

Washington Post: Iran Sanctions Choke Medicine Imports

Erin Cunningham December 10, 2018
Economists project the latest round of US sanctions on Iran to have detrimental effects on the nation’s healthcare sector, according to the Washington Post. Sanctions on Iranian financial firms “could endanger the flow of humanitarian goods as foreign banks and outside suppliers abandon business ties with their partners in Iran, analysts and experts warn,” reports Erin Cunningham. Moreover, some...

The Guardian: Syria Resumes Airstrikes

December 7, 2018
The Syrian government resumed airstrikes in the wake of alleged poison gas attacks by rebels in Aleppo. The bombings in north Syria are in violation of the truce brokered by Russia and Turkey that enabled “relative calm to the country’s north for the past two months,” reports the Guardian. Meanwhile, the rebels have denied carrying out the attacks and accuse that the Syrian government of...