Search: “Iran”

I hate saying I told you so, but… Remember my post on Egypt a month ago (When will Egypt learn?)?  In it I wrote that the Sisi government appears to be making the same mistakes that the Sadat and Mubarak governments before him had committed.  In the face of a very real threat from a […]

Now that everyone and his uncle has had a chance to comment on the nuclear accord reached with Iran, it’s my turn. (Full disclosure: I was an Iranian analyst in the Canadian intelligence community for twenty years and was even fluent in Farsi at one point – alas no more!) There is no question Iran […]

In the struggle to come up with strategies to deal with violent extremism (notice I didn’t say “War on Terror”?) a number of policies, strategies and measures are continually being proposed by governments, academics, experts and thinktanks around the world.  There is even some attempt at coordinating positions and coming to some agreement on what […]

Further to my earlier post on when Egypt would learn from its historic mistakes in dealing with terrorism and violence, I now turn my attention to Turkey.  According to news sources, the Turkish government may invade along a 70-mile stretch of its border with Syria to establish a 20-mile buffer zone (see article here) Given […]

The multiple attacks today (June 26) have led to a burst of condemnation and outrage – as they should. The vast majority of people – Muslim and non-Muslim – have rightly protested against this barbarity.  And we will surely see more demonstrations in the days to come as more and more people are inspired to […]

According to Al Jazeera, the Islamic State recently claimed in an online statement that it carried out a deadly suicide bomb attack at a mosque in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province of Qatif (see story here).  The eastern part of Saudi Arabia is largely Shia and tensions between the Sunni monarchy and its Shia residents have been […]