#Washington Institute

One week after we reported that the head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard (which two weeks ago was designated by the US as a terrorist organization), Qassem Soleimani, was observed in Erbil last Sunday where he met with Kurdistan regional president Barzani to "discuss" the growing crisis - the

Two days ago, when we previewed the first ever visit by a Saudi King to the Russian capital - a move which prompted Bloomberg to call Russian president Putin the "new master of the Middle East" - we pointed out that according to Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, a joint Russian-Saudi fund to

In a move that was entirely expected, Iraq's Supreme Court has ruled that the Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum scheduled for September 25 cannot take place. The ruling comes as Turkey has begun military exercises along its border with Iraq's Kurdish region in a show of force meant to signal

The following article by David Haggith is from The Great Recession Blog: Countering recent US sanctions and President Trump’s talk of ending the “bad” nuclear agreement with Iran, Iran’s president threatened to restart its nuclear program. If his threat is true as stated, he unwittingly admitted

One day after Saudi Arabia and its Gulf ally states finally released a long-awaited, 10-day ultimatum containing 13 demands from Qatar as a precondition for the resumption of diplomatic ties and an end of Qatar's economic and naval blockade, the small Gulf nation balked and said the ultimatum is