The Obama administration negotiated a nuclear deal (JCPOA) with the Iranian mullahs that was bad for the U.S. (which found it had only legitimized the regime that the U.S. Department of State called the "world's worst state sponsor of terrorism") and bad for Israel (the deal would allow Iran, after a few years, to become a full-blown nuclear power).

The Biden administration has already promised to return the U.S. to the JCPOA, provided that Iran will once again agree to honor its terms. The Iranians, based on a well-established track record, most likely will not honor those terms. That will certainly create friction not only with Israel... but also with many of Iran's Sunni neighbors, who are also alarmed by the prospect of a nuclear-armed, Shi'ite, aspiring hegemon in the region.

The last few years... have shown that Arab counties seem tired of a Palestinian intransigence that has only held everyone back.

Even if one dislikes Trump, the recent advances in a warm peace brought by the Abraham Accords represent a truly new hope for the region and, significantly, a new willingness by Arab nations finally to leave behind an ancient and outdated hostility. Will the Biden administration be so short-sighted as to drop the ball on this initiative simply because it is associated with an earlier administration that now happens to be disliked? Or will it instead bid for a legacy based on even more successes -- and perhaps even a Nobel Peace Prize -- by fostering even greater interdependence among regional neighbors in the Middle East?

Six years after Turkey invaded Cyprus, another military coup d'état, in 1980 in Turkey, would destroy whatever crumbs of freedoms remained. According to US secret diplomatic documents, at least 650,000 people were detained. Many were tortured and hundreds died in custody.

"There is a rule in the [Turkish] Special Warfare: To increase the strength of the people, some of their values must be sabotaged as if [the sabotage were conducted] by the enemy. [For example], a mosque can be burned. We burned a mosque in Cyprus." — Turkish General Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu, Habertürk, September 23, 2010.

In addition to Greek Cypriots, Armenian, Maronite, and other non-Muslim Cypriots were also forcibly displaced. The result was that Turkey effectively crushed the Christian population.

Today Turkey still calls the atrocities it committed in Cyprus in 1974 "a peace operation."

First, he must persuade Tehran to treat Iraq as an independent nation-state, not a glacis for the Islamic Republic in its campaign to "export revolution."

Revival of the 1977 trade accord could help end the current chaos and enable Tehran and Baghdad to secure income from tariffs and taxation. Setting mutually accepted rules on charities could also help both curb money laundering and tax evasion through fake religious charities linked to crime syndicates and security services.

The big enchilada in al-Hakim's imaginary mediation would be the reopening of Shatt al-Arab, the border waterway closed and clogged during the war. Re-opened, the Shatt could ensure the revival of Basra in Iraq and Khorramshahr in Iran which were the region's largest ports for centuries. Dredging and remodeling the waterway could cost some $20 billion, worth considering if both sides created a joint navigation management agency.

Ah, we dropped the word "normalization".... If the Islamic Republic can't normalize relations even with Iraq, how could it normalize with the American "Great Satan"?

If wise al-Hakim wants to mediate, let him start with his two homelands.