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MbZ realizes that the UAE’s economic and security interests are best protected through some degree of rapprochement with Iran. He realizes that the Trump administration’s current course of never-ending and always escalating confrontation cannot lead to anything good. The UAE will now be more in line with those Gulf states—Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar—whose postures had already reflected such realizations.
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Diplomacy, forbearance, and contentment are inclinations that cannot be achieved with billions of dollars in weapons. Your allies in the region, Mohammad bin Salman and Benjamin Netanyahu, can both attest to that. Despite the tens of billions of dollars they have devoted to their military budgets, they feel insecure and besieged by real or imagined threats. Their devotion to military power, often at the expense of diplomacy, carries serious risks.
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by Kayhan Barzegar and Abdolrasol Divsallar
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Despite the fact that both Iran and the U.S. are well aware that continuing the current trend risks a military clash, the lack of an honorable strategy to get out of the crisis is a key characteristic of current escalations. But military to military back channel contacts could be used to set up a military de-confliction line between the two countries, giving politics more opportunity to manage the current inflammatory situation.
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We need to ask ourselves, is this who we want to be? And if we say no, we must decide who we should be. That will give us something to strive for. And it could well help to bring us, after the inevitable arguing over those answers, to a more unified and, dare I say, a more perfect union, one that can have a much more positive impact on the world.
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Western political elites have used in recent year to mask the realities of the nature of war. Military action is not just an “intervention.” In many circumstances, it is an act of war, and it should be recognized as such. And military action can never, in itself, be described as “humanitarian.” As General Sherman recognized, war is indeed hell.
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by Esfandyar Batmanghelidj
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As the UAE braces itself for the next global recession, Iran remains the only country capable of injecting significant capital into Dubai at a time when global investors will pullback. Iranian business leaders in Dubai are wondering—how long can Abu Dhabi afford to freeze them out?
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The UAE’s modest outreach to Tehran is not about any Emirati plans for a rapprochement. Rather, the decision to dispatch two delegations to Iran was driven by a realization of the ways the UAE stands to gain by reevaluating its strategies for dealing with regional crises that involve Iran.
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In the aftermath of the UAE withdrawal from Yemen, MbS will be forced to re-examine the grand design he devised for himself and for the region. The design, which has been fueled by his economic largesse and perceived support from the Trump White House, is fading. Will MbS internalize the ensuing failure and act on it before it’s too late?
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Iraqi efforts to engage Washington and Tehran in talks offer an alternative to war but are anathema for those who seek to isolate Iran as a chief, if not the only, troublemaker in the region. But the “war party”—in Europe as much as in America—lacks any valid, fact-based arguments to support its case. That is the reason why it continuously resorts to all sorts of manipulation, distortions, lies, smear campaigns, and character assassination attempts.
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The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has assessed that water scarcity could render Gaza uninhabitable by 2020, a startling possibility for a territory of two million people. Water scarcity undermines Gaza’s economic and political stability, encouraging Hamas to start a conflict that could net concessions from war-weary Israelis. Resolving environmental issues can play a small role in establishing peace.
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