Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Jasim Al-Azzawi
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Iran’s strike near Dimona raises old questions about Israel’s nuclear secrets
Iran’s missile strike near Israel’s Dimona nuclear facility on Saturday night was more than a dramatic escalation in the shadow war between the two nations. It was a reminder of the fragility of Israel’s decades-long policy of “nuclear ambiguity,” a strategy designed to keep adversaries guessing about the country’s ultimate…
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Cui bono: Six months into the Gulf War
The war in the Gulf has entered a decisive phase. Six months from now, the strategic landscape will look markedly different, shaped not only by the immediate destruction but by the recalibration of alliances, energy markets, and global power balances. The question before us is simple yet profound: Cui bono?…
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The original sin: How Churchill’s oil and Khomeini’s vision fuelled decades of Middle East turmoil
The war in Iran did not begin with a missile strike or a declaration. It began in the sweltering August of 1953, in the offices of a CIA operative named Kermit Roosevelt Jr., grandson of a president, architect of a coup d’état. It began when American and British intelligence agencies…
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The four drivers of the Iran War: Rhetoric, miscalculation, hubris, and two conflicting clocks
The United States and Israel did not stumble into war with Iran. They were driven into it — by the relentless drumbeat of political rhetoric, by catastrophic miscalculation, by the outsized egos of two narcissistic leaders who fancied themselves military geniuses, and by two clocks ticking to entirely different rhythms.…
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Netanyahu’s lifelong obsession with striking Iran and his looming spectacular defeat
For almost four decades, Benjamin Netanyahu has defined his politics by his singular, animating idea: that Iran poses an existential threat to Israel, and only he possesses the vision and courage to confront it head-on. On February 28, 2026, in front of television cameras in Jerusalem, he made it official:…
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The Epstein Files: Blackmail, power, and geopolitical shadows
The infamous Epstein files do not merely pulse with the sordid details of one man’s depravity; they are the autopsy report of a dying moral order. This was never a solitary enterprise of vice. It was a sprawling, subterranean web of influence and compromise that snared the world’s self-anointed gods—royals,…
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Shatter Iran, inherit the whirlwind
The Whirlwind Begins There is a dangerous, academic notion currently haunting the halls of Washington and Tel Aviv: the idea that a fractured Iran, carved into a half-dozen ethnic mini-states, would be safer than the one we have known. It is a theory that has clearly found a home in…
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The General who swallowed his truth
General Dan Cain, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivered a private warning to President Trump with the bluntness that democracies depend upon and empires routinely ignore: “We don’t have enough ammunition to win this war. It would not be pretty.” This was not timidity. This was the solitary…
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Hizballah’s last stand: Disarmament, defiance, and Tehran’s shadow over Lebanon
As Lebanon approaches parliamentary elections in May 2026, the country stands at a crossroads. Hizballah, the mighty image of Lebanese politics and Middle Eastern resistance, has been left battered and isolated politically after its latest confrontation with Israel. But even in its weakened position, the organization remains defiant—retaining its weapons…
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Daylight strike shatters Tehran’s inner circle
The strike on Tehran was not just another exchange in the long shadow war between Israel and Iran. It was a precision operation timed to coincide with the rare convergence of Iran’s most senior leadership. What made it extraordinary was not only the audacity of striking in daylight, but also…
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From Munich to Tehran: Echoes of appeasement and lessons of power drift
The uneasy negotiations between the United States and Iran are unfolding under the shadow of a long historical truth: great-power systems rarely collapse in a single dramatic moment. They erode. They drift. They unravel—through hesitation, miscalculation, and the quiet accumulation of small crises that go unanswered until answering them becomes…
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The price of truth: Tucker Carlson, Piers Morgan, and the Gaza reckoning
There are moments when the edifice of propaganda collapses, when the images of emaciated children, pulverised neighbourhoods, and mass graves pierce the armour of denial. For Tucker Carlson and Piers Morgan, two men once counted among Israel’s most ardent defenders, Gaza became that moment. Their transformations—Carlson from a “rabid Zionist”…
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The Strait of Hormuz: Where geography becomes a weapon
For decades, American military planners have operated on a simple assumption: that overwhelming force, applied decisively, could resolve almost any crisis in the Persian Gulf. Iran, it turns out, has spent years making that assumption obsolete — not by building a navy capable of matching America’s, but by turning a…
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The digital high commissioner: Trump’s Maliki threat and the illusion of Iraqi sovereignty
When President Donald Trump took to social media to demand that former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki withdraw his bid for a return to power, the message landed with explosive force. Within days, Maliki’s coalition Coordination Framework crumbled, withdrawing support under the weight of American pressure. What might have seemed…
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Turkey as Israel’s “next Iran”? A strategic rivalry reconsidered
When former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that Turkey, with the support of Qatar, was replacing Iran as Israel’s major strategic threat, his words were not just another warning about another enemy. Instead, his remarks reflected a broader anxiety: Israel could be entering a period of renewed conflict with…
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Trump’s war: A conflict of survival, not strategy
“Trump’s challenge isn’t just Tehran. It’s balancing Israel, the donor class, and his own movement—both of which are pulling him in different directions.” The quote, as published by the Financial Times, captures the crux of America’s impending conflict with Iran. It’s no longer limited to containing Iran’s ambitions, but may…
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The new calculus in the Gulf: How Beijing and Moscow have altered the Iran equation
In the rarefied environment of the West Wing, the ghosts of the “Twelve-Day War” that transpired last June still linger in the Situation Room. For President Trump, the goal remains unchanged: the same triad of demands that Iran ceases its enrichment activities, dismantles its missile program, and severs its “axis…
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Missiles, carriers, and red lines: Washington, Tehran and Jerusalem face off in a historic confrontation. Who blinks first?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Washington last week was far from a routine diplomatic exercise. The objective was straightforward: convince President Donald Trump to intensify pressure on Iran. Netanyahu’s demands were unambiguous and uncompromising: Iran must be stripped of its nuclear program, the missile production plants must be…
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Two scorpions in a jar: How Trump and Netanyahu’s alliance became a cage
Today, Benjamin Netanyahu meets Donald Trump at the White House for the seventh time since Trump was reelected. Ostensibly, it is a reunion of old allies; in reality, it is a war council of desperate men. As they lean over maps spread across a large table, the atmosphere will be…
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The new Axis of Resistance: Sino-Russian technological buoyancy in Iran
In the current state of tension between the Jewish state and the Islamic Republic of Iran, the situation has come to a critical juncture. What was once a series of regional skirmishes has now escalated to a sophisticated, three-way defense of Iran against the Israeli threat. This has come about…
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The Mandelson scandal and Britain’s recurring failure of judgement
Keir Starmer’s eventual apology to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein is not offered as a matter of genuine conscience, but rather as a matter of political expediency. The astonishing confession by the Prime Minister that he was “lied to” and “deceived” by Peter Mandelson reveals not naivety, but rather a…
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Trump’s five impossible demands, and the inevitable second strike against Iran
As American naval forces assemble in the Indian Ocean, diplomats started negotiations in Muscat on Friday; the region is standing at the precipice. President Trump, buoyed by his recent spectacular success in Venezuela, is entering these talks with Iran with demands that can only be described as maximalist. The conditions…
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War or no war? Duelling analyses offer starkly different visions of conflict’s timing and trajectory
In the hallways of Washington and the media centres monitoring the Middle Eastern conflict, two vastly disparate predictions have been made regarding a possible American strike on Iran. These predictions differ not only in degree but also in kind, revealing a profound divergence of opinion between seasoned analysts of the…
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The Epstein Files: Blackmail, power, and geopolitical shadows
The infamous Epstein files continue to reverberate across the globe. They exposed a network that was never simply about one man’s depravity. Instead, they reveal a sprawling web of influence, compromise, and blackmail that ensnared royals, billionaires, diplomats, tech moguls, and Arab businesspeople. These ties transcend personal scandal, bordering on…