Richard Silverman Our president is not a religious man. But it’s suitable to quote a verse from what his Christian allies call “the Scriptures:” For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind… I will send a fire upon his cities, And it will devour their castles. –Hosea Wreckage after U.S. drone attacked…
Richard Silverstein Events in the Gulf are unfolding so quickly and ominously that it’s impossible to keep up. They could easily spiral out of control. You might go to sleep at night to a region at peace and wake up the next morning to countries aflame. In the midst of this swirl of events, it’s…
Richard Silverstein You can forget that claim you hear from Trump, Netanyahu and MBS that Iran is the greatest sponsor of state terrorism in the world. That award goes to Saudi Arabia hands down. First, it spent and wasted billions building up ISIS and arming it in order to topple the Syrian Alawite regime. It…
Richard Silverstein Donald Trump presented his second State of the Union speech tonight and it was a phantasmagoria of Trumpian grandeur, and not in a good way. For future generations, it should be used as a model for what not to do when preparing and delivering such an address. It was significant both for what…
Richard Silverstein 2018 was a terrible year for the Middle East. Months of massacres in Gaza, tensions between Israel and Hezbollah on its northern border, Qatar under siege from its Sunni neighbours, 85,000 children starved to death in Yemen, and a Sunni alliance rattling sabres against Iran. Though Bashar al-Assad appears to have secured his…
Peter Van Buren Peter is a 24 year veteran as a State Department diplomat and ended his service as leading an FOB ( forward operating base) during the Iraq war. The base was used to establish an American presence to spend millions on Iraqi community support. – Ed. Going forward, Trump is unlikely to pull…
Peter Van Buren The last quarter century of Iraq Wars (from Desert Storm 1991 to the present) thrust the region into chaos while progressively erasing American dominance. Iran is picking up the pieces. As long as the U.S. insists on not opening diplomatic relations with Tehran, it will have no way short of war to…
Richard Silverstein OK. So you have the Iranians getting nuclear plants, technology, and uranium enrichment expertise from the Russians. As a result, some fear the Iranians may be using these as components of a nuclear program to develop nuclear weapons. You have these same people warning that if Iran gets nuclear weapons that the Saudis…
In Part II of his analysis, Richard Silverstein explores the dangerous coalition of Israel under Netanyahu with Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Salmon. Both seek to diminish Shiite Iran’s influence in the Middle East, and both are ready to bring financial and military pressure on Lebanon, Syria, and if need be, on Iraq, to assert…
Richard Silverstein As the October 15th deadline for President Trump to certify Iranian compliance with the P5+1 nuclear deal, the administration, through various media leaks made clear it will refuse to do so. His grounds for refusal are the flimsiest imaginable: Iran has engaged in objectionable behavior which the President wishes violated the deal, but…
The Contrary Perspective 