Iran’s first direct successful attack on Israel for its many brutal attacks on Syria, Lebanon, Iran and the annihilation of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank has dramatically changed the rules for all state and non-state actors in the Middle East. On 13 April, for the first time in nearly 190 days, Palestinians in Gaza were able to sleep without fear of Israel’s constant aerial presence in the skies over the Strip, which has been mercilessly carpet-bombed since 7 October…

In early April 2024, Cairo hosted another round of ceasefire negotiations in the Gaza Strip. However, observers note a lack of meaningful progress between the parties. The point is that the determined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unwilling to make concessions on the release of Palestinian hostages before the ceasefire, seeing such a scenario as a defeat for Tel Aviv at the hands of Hamas. The Palestinians, on the other hand, have a diametrically opposed view. Despite the hopes of the mediators, represented by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, that there would be space between the positions of the opposing sides, no consensus has been reached…

International outrage continues to grow after the United States unilaterally blocked a widely supported UN Security Council resolution that would have admitted the state of Palestine as a full member of the United Nations. The US was the only country to veto the resolution, while even its staunch allies Britain and Switzerland abstained and 12 of the 15 Security Council members voted in favour…

The dates of 7 October 2023 and 13 April 2024 will go down in the history of the Middle East as milestones that defined a new balance of power. The myth of Israel’s military superiority and the invincibility of its army will be gone forever. The Gaza massacre, which caused enormous loss of life and destruction, effectively isolated the Netanyahu government in the international community. Only the US and a few other Western powers provided diplomatic cover for his military provocations…

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States believed that a unipolar world would last forever: year after year, day after day, it became increasingly blatant in its disregard for the interests of others and the opinions of the rest of the world. Then the concept of an international “rules-based order” was born: a group of American scholars, former and future officials, presented a paper at Princeton in 2006 entitled “A World of Freedom Under Law”…

Last week, Washington’s decision to abstain from voting allowed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to pass the resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. This would be remembered as one of those rare occasions where the US did not use its veto power to protect Israel. More importantly, the Israeli prime minister’s office termed the US decision to not veto the resolution as a “clear retreat” from Washington’s previous uncritical commitment to protecting Israel…

Only now can we see that there may be more justification than just political mudslinging for Joe Biden being called “Genocide Joe.” Nonetheless, the US is starting to charge its tune over Gaza and the plight of the Palestinians, not out of altruist reasons, or from realizing that Israel has gone too far in getting “its pound of flesh from over the heart”, but instead from basic political pragmatism. This phrase has come to symbolize an insistence on receiving repayment or justice, even if it results in extreme or unreasonable consequences….

The author has repeatedly argued that the US and the UK have been fighting in Gaza, and the Middle East using Israel, a reality that was revealed in the UNSC meeting of April 2^nd convened to discuss Israeli bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus. The US, UK, and France blamed…

Tasnim News Agency (Iran) reported that some 5,000 US troops have been involved in the ground operation since Israel invaded Gaza, causing death and destruction at every turn. The news agency also reported that the US military command has virtually taken control of the situation in the Israeli army, as the military has suffered a crushing defeat in Operation Al-Aqsa Storm and Israeli leaders have lost confidence in the leadership abilities and loyalty of a number of soldiers…

On 19 March, Badr Al-Busaidi, Foreign Minister of the Sultanate of Oman, gave an interview to CNN in which he commented on the situation in Gaza and the Israeli ground operation in Rafah. The Omani called on the international community to de-escalate the conflict and call for an immediate ceasefire. Al-Busaidi said that the crisis in the Red Sea, the activation of pro-Iranian proxies in the region…

On 18 March, US Senator Bernie Sanders (who has been in the Senate since 2007) published an article in Foreign Affairs on the need for a radical change in American foreign policy, which, according to him, “requires a rejection of greed, militarism and hypocrisy”. Harshly criticising American adventures in Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc., the senator points out that in the last few decades alone the US has been involved in military operations in Afghanistan, Cameroon…

After five months of compliance with Israel’s genocidal onslaughts in Gaza, the United States airdropped 38000 meals for the first time in March 2024. This move has largely been criticized by aid groups and observers around the world due to its inefficacy and the United States’ paradoxical role in this war. Skepticism looms large over this aid program launched by the Biden administration, as it is perceived as a divergence tactic to tranquilize the burgeoning criticism at home and…