by News Decoder | 7 Nov 2017 | Decoders, Middle East, Student Posts, Syria
Rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia, aspirants for leadership of the Islamic world, is at the crux of conflict across the Mideast, with deadly results. An Iranian woman in Tehran holds up a poster showing Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent opposition Saudi Shiite...
by News Decoder | 20 Oct 2017 | Israel-Palestine, Middle East, United States
We originally published this article in February after Donald Trump took office as U.S. president and said he was not committed to a two-state solution in Palestine. We are publishing it again because of the continuing importance of the issue, which was the focus of a...
by Tania Bagan | 26 Jun 2017 | Decoders, Islam, Middle East, Student Posts, Terrorism, United States
The region is energy-rich, torn by conflict and at the center of a struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran. All reasons why the blockade of Qatar matters. A container ship in Doha, Qatar, 14 June 2017. (EPA/Noushad thekkayil) The region holds about half of the...
by Jonathan Lyons | 12 Jun 2017 | Islam, Middle East, Terrorism, United States
Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have punished Qatar. The real target is not the small, gas-rich emirate but the regional powerhouse that is Iran. The “crisis” enveloping the tiny Gulf state of Qatar is a classic case of that regional diplomatic specialty:...
by News Decoder | 22 Dec 2016 | Islam, Middle East, Politics, United States
By Alistair Lyon U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has casually hurled a diplomatic grenade into the Middle East. He has picked as his ambassador to Israel a fervent sponsor of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land and an enemy of any two-state solution to...