Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Jasim Al-Azzawi
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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…
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The raging bull in the chinaware shop
Donald Trump is not a strategic thinker but an incredible force of nature. He is, at best, a reactive tactician. He enters complex situations with blunt force, mistakes disruption for strength, and leaves others to calculate the damage. This pattern has defined his domestic politics. It now defines American power.…
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Unleashing the spear: Why Hezbollah is joining the fray
During the Twelve-Day War last June, Hezbollah remained conspicuously sidelined while Iran faced the United States and Israel alone. Critics suggested Tehran was deliberately preserving its “crown jewel” for the inevitable future showdown. Tehran did not want to burn its Ace. Now, facing the consequences of past military miscalculations, the…
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The armada and the trigger: How the US-Iran standoff could ignite a regional catastrophe
The threats from both sides now echo with the finality and decisiveness of irreversibility. “A massive Armada is heading to Iran,” declares President Trump. “It’s heading there with speed and violence, if necessary.” These words hang in the balance against Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s retort: “Our brave Armed Forces…
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Mr Trump, Iraq’s kleptocracy must be dismantled: cutting aid is a laughable and naïve approach
If Nouri Al-Maliki returns to power, the United States cutting support to Iraq would be a moral half-measure. Iraq does not suffer from a shortage of ultimatums. It suffers from a systemic criminal enterprise masquerading as governance. What Iraq needs is not punishment by neglect, but surgical dismantling of the…
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The ring of fire: From Tehran to southern Lebanon, the battle lines are drawn
US aircraft carrier strike group reaches the Middle East. The region holds its breath. Six months have passed since the June 2025 twelve-day war that allegedly destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and US President Trump have renewed their threats of a military strike on Iran. At the…
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Trump, Tehran, and the trial: The countdown to the unknown begins
Benjamin Netanyahu is facing the battle of his life in Israel’s general election set for May, with his liberty at stake. Israel’s longest-serving prime minister is trapped in a high-stakes balancing act, weighing his legal battles and the risk of imprisonment against the stability of his fragile coalition. The legal…
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The Davos contrast: Precision vs. Provocation
In the 1920s and ’30s, the unthinkable was put in writing in the form of “War Plan Red,” America’s plans for an invasion of Canada, and “Defence Scheme No. 1,” Canada’s plans for a preventive war with America. The former allies had secretly been planning their mutual annihilation. One hundred…
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In 1953, the CIA walked the streets of Tehran; today, they walk with Mossad and MI6
The humidity of an Iranian summer is heavy stuff indeed, but in August 1953, the air in Tehran seemed to vibrate with something far more explosive than heat and moisture. It was the scent of a manufactured revolution. Kermit Roosevelt, a man whose bloodline carried a president of the United…
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The paralysis before the storm: How fear of war may guarantee one
The corridors of the Pentagon and the Iranian camps are shrouded in a strange silence. This is not the silence of intent but of an impending conflict, acknowledging that the next attack in the Middle East may set off a chain reaction that war game planners are unsure of. The…
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The dangerous parallels between Iraq in 2003 and Iran in 2026
The Iran rhetoric that is current today has a disquieting similarity to what happened prior to the Iraq War. Once more, Iran is portrayed by American officials as a Middle East adversary that is on the verge of gaining nuclear capabilities. Indeed, as political scientist John Mearsheimer predicted in the…
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Netanyahu’s childhood friend breaks silence, warning of “ruined state” and personal obsessions
Nations do not always fall to invading armies. More often, they are fractured from within, hollowed out by leaders who confuse their own survival with the state’s fate. Israel has reached that precipice. The country is no longer governed in the public interest; it is being sacrificed to the needs…
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The presidency as theatre: America’s age of False Fronts
In “False Front,” historian Kenneth Lowande exposes one of Washington’s most deeply embedded legends: that today’s president serves as an “imperial” ruler, exercising their authority through orders and actions that require no authorization from Congress. Lowande opens a window, however, onto something far more ominous and far more barren. Today,…
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The American paradox: A nation simultaneously ascending and descending
The United States is a paradox that defies the typical categories of power analysis. Is the United States an empire on the brink of decline, or is it still the world’s greatest concentration of human innovation? The answer is perhaps both. Thesis: The inexorable descent The Rise and Fall of…
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The psychological profile of a president whose IQ is “off the chart”
The pattern is no longer subtle. It is not policy. It is a pathology manifested as power. Donald Trump rules through a series of shock waves meant to disorient, exhaust, and dominate. One after another, the punches come: mass ICE raids first in Washington, then across America; a world tariff…
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The predicament of the Islamic Republic: Why 2026 is different
By January 2026, “cumulative erosion” will begin to characterize Iran’s Islamic Republic, defying the classical rhythms of reform and repression. Though the Rial’s collapse ignited the protest movement within Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, this nationwide mass revolt is characteristic of a crisis encompassing financial bankruptcy, ecological “Day Zero” projections, and a…