وفقا للإستراتيجية الأميركية الكبرى، التي حددها الأميرال آرثر ك. سيبروفسكي في عام 2001 ونشرها نائبه توماس بارنت عام 2004، يجب تدمير كامل الشرق الأوسط الموسع باستثناء إسرائيل والأردن ولبنان.

On Monday, I sat in One U.N. Plaza, the high-rise hotel across the street from the United Nations, and watched a parade of European diplomats head into meetings with Iran’s President, Hassan Rouhani. Boris Johnson, the blond-mopped British foreign minister, sauntered through the lobby in deep conversation with his delegation. The new French President, Emmanuel Macron, led by a military officer wearing the distinctive stovepipe kepi, and accompanied by a dozen aides and several photographers, scurried by next. One by one, the Europeans came to confer with the leader of a country that has been ostracized by the outside world, for decades, as a pariah. No longer.

On a scorching day in August, 2006, Wajeha al-Huwaider threw off her abaya, the enveloping black cover worn by Saudi women, and donned a calf-length pink shirt, pink trousers, and a matching pink scarf. She then took a taxi, from Bahrain, to a signpost on the bridge marking the border with Saudi Arabia. She got out and, with a large poster declaring, “Give Women Their Rights,” marched toward her homeland. Within twenty minutes, she was picked up by Saudi security forces, interrogated for a day, and officially warned. An intelligence officer, she recounted to me later, had pointed at her mouth and said, “Control this, and we won’t have a problem.”

Gender

After decades of activism, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that it was lifting a longstanding ban on women driving. The change, which is set to take effect in June 2018, was welcomed news to many, but women are still denied a variety of rights in the Kingdom.

Gender

President Trump told world leaders at the UN that the nuclear deal with Iran and other nations was an "embarrassment to the United States." Iran's President Rouhani went home and presided over a parade including new long-range ballistic missiles -- which were not part of the deal. But Trump and US hardliners say they should have been, and should be in the future. So they're calling for re-negotiation. Critics call that so unlikely it puts American diplomats in a bind — especially when North Korea already has nuclear weapons and accuses the US of "declaring war."

The U.S.-backed Iraqi military has reportedly announced that it plans “to coordinate military efforts” with neighboring Iran, considered by the American government to be the leading state-sponsor of terrorism.

Violent Extremism

For all the hype about Americans joining isis, the majority never saw combat during the Islamic State’s three-year rule. They were largely marginal players in the jihadist caliphate—often working in menial jobs as cooks, mechanics, cleaners, or orderlies. In the end, many became...

It was the quietest protest Iran has ever witnessed. Vida Movahed, a thirty-one-year-old mother of a toddler, stood atop a large utility box on Tehran’s busy Enghelab Street and removed the hijab head covering that all women are required to wear by law. Her jet-black hair cascaded far down her back. She then tied...