LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) - A U.N.-backed tribunal on Tuesday said there was no evidence the leadership of Hezbollah or the Syrian government were involved in the 2005 killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Four members of the Iran-backed Shi’ite movement Hezbollah are charged with conspiracy to carry out the massive bomb attack that killed Hariri and 21 other people. Hariri, a Sunni Muslim billionaire, had close ties with the United States, Western and Sunni Gulf Arab allies, and was seen as a threat to Iranian and Syrian influence in Lebanon. He led efforts to rebuild Beirut following the…

"'Pearls before swine,' that's what you said to me, after I gave you a compliment in Kuwait concerning an excellent cable I had just transmitted on the TERP V on your behalf. I no longer recall the subject of the cable. That would have been about 30, maybe 31 years ago. I am interested in purchasing your beautiful watercolor: Citadel, Aleppo." So it was that I heard from Hal for the first time since we had served together at U.S. Embassy Kuwait three decades ago.  He reminded me that it was 30 years ago this month that our paths had diverged in…

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The United Arab Emirates became the first Arab country to open a nuclear power plant on Saturday, raising concerns about the long-term consequences of introducing more nuclear programs to the Middle East. Two other countries in the region — Israel and Iran — already have nuclear capabilities. Israel has an unacknowledged nuclear weapons arsenal and Iran has a controversial uranium enrichment program that it insists is solely for peaceful purposes. The U.A.E., a tiny nation that has become a regional heavyweight and international business center, said it built the plant to decrease its reliance on the oil…

On July 21, The New York Times described a small but typical example of corruption in the Trump era. “The American ambassador to Britain, Robert Wood Johnson IV, told multiple colleagues in February 2018 that President Trump had asked him to see if the British government could help steer the world-famous and lucrative British Open golf tournament to the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland,” the newspaper reported. What’s striking about this report is how little of a ripple it caused. In any other administration, the use of an ambassador to further a president’s private business would be a major scandal and trigger congressional investigations and perhaps the appointment…

Today, at President Donald J. Trump’s direction, the Department of the Treasury and the Department of State announced designations on four individuals and ten entities actively supporting the murderous and barbaric Assad regime in Syria.  Today’s designations employ a range of sanctions authorities to target the Assad regime, including the Caesar Act provision of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020, which authorizes sanctions on individuals providing support to the Syrian government. The targets of today’s sanctions include a corrupt Syrian businessman complicit in support to the regime, and nine entities responsible for enriching the Syrian regime…