Since the beginning of 2014, representatives from Israel and Saudi Arabia have had five secret meetings to discuss a common foe, Iran. On Thursday, the two countries came out of the closet by revealing this covert diplomacy at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. Among those who follow the Middle East closely, it's been an open secret that Israel and Saudi Arabia have a common interest in thwarting Iran. But until Thursday, actual diplomacy between the two was never officially acknowledged. Saudi Arabia still doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist. Israel has yet to accept a Saudi-initiated peace offer to create a Palestinian…

Former National Security Agency contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden was quietly vindicated on Tuesday when the US Senate passed a bill to end the government’s bulk collection of phone records. The USA Freedom Act passed with 67-32 votes in the Senate after previously clearing the House of Representatives, and is the most significant overhaul to surveillance policy since 1978. The NSA will stop collecting meta data and calling records from December. Not everyone was happy with halting the surveillance programme. Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell, who fought to extend the Patriot Act (which legalised the majority of NSA activity and…

بسقوط الدولة العثمانية في 1922 ميلادياً ثم إلغاء الخلافة في 1924 بدأت مرحلة جديدة في تاريخ العلاقة بين السلطة الحاكمة و بين الإسلام كدين يعتنقه أغلبية المجتمعات في القوميات الثلاث التي تُعتبر القلبَ الجغرافي و الثقافي للأمة الإسلامية العريضة؛ و هي القوميات العربية، و التركية، و الفارسية/الإيرانية. ففي الوقت الذي أسس فيه مصطفى كمال أتاتورك دولته اللائكية النازعة إلى فرض العلمنة و مكافحة مظاهر الدين في المجال العام السياسي و الاجتماعي، كان رضا بهلوي متجهاً إلى عزل أحمد مرزا القاجاري ليحل محله شاهاً على إيران عام 1925 و يخطو على درب أتاتورك نحو علمنة بلاد فارس التي غير اسمها رسمياً…

When it comes to Libya’s year-old civil war, the international community has all but openly admitted that it’s out of ideas. The UN-led negotiations, which are formally aimed at reaching a peace deal by mid-June, have produced no positive developments or even meaningful cease-fires. They are presently on the brink of collapse. On Tuesday, the Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni barely escaped an assassination attempt, and a parliamentary session was stormed by gunmen. Yet despite how dire the situation has become, many Western officials reject the very idea of a plan B, arguing that the current talks represent the only way forward…

The field of Republican presidential contenders does not want for hawks. Marco Rubio is alreadytalking about attacking Iran. Jeb Bush has stacked his foreign policy team with his brother’s neoconservative advisers, including Iraq war architect Paul Wolfowitz. Scott Walker wants to be “a leader that is willing to take a fight to them before they take the fight to us.” Even Rand Paul has proposed to increase defense spending. (As for the other side, Hillary Clinton has plenty ofquestions to answer about her support for military intervention.) Now the flock is about to get a candidate to out-hawk all the others: South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham,…