-
5 days ago | 
arabcenterdc.org | Charles W. Dunne |Imad K. Harb |Khalil E. Jahshan |Tamara Kharroub
After waiting for a week following Israel’s June 13 attack on Iran, US President Donald Trump decided to involve the United States directly in the Israeli-Iranian war. On June 21, American strategic bombers and naval ships attacked three Iranian nuclear sites—at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan—ending the United States’ pretense of diplomatic contact and negotiations with the Islamic Republic regarding its nuclear program.
-
3 weeks ago | 
arabcenterdc.org | Imad K. Harb
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recently reached an agreement to regulate the presence of armed Palestinian factions in Lebanon as the country manages Hezbollah’s weapons caches in the south in accordance with the November 27, 2024, ceasefire arrangement with Israel. The Lebanese-Palestinian accord ostensibly ended the factions’ independent armed presence inside Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps, which are outside of the control of the Lebanese state.
-
1 month ago | 
arabcenterdc.org | Charles W. Dunne |Dana El Kurd |Imad K. Harb |Khalil E. Jahshan
Last week President Donald Trump ended a three-country trip to the Arabian Gulf—Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates—where he signed lucrative arms and business deals and got commitments from his hosts to make huge investments in the American economy.
-
1 month ago | 
arabcenterdc.org | Imad K. Harb
In front of a packed hall hosting an investment forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, US President Donald Trump spoke of an ironclad American-Saudi relationship that spans decades and that will be strengthened with deals across military, economic, security, and technological sectors. Both he and his host, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, spoke of Saudi investments worth $600 billion in deals with the United States.
-
2 months ago | 
arabcenterdc.org | Imad K. Harb
On April 13, 2025, the Lebanese, to the day, commemorated the 50th anniversary of the start of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war that, with hindsight, can be seen as the seminal event in the life of the country and the surrounding region.
-
2 months ago | 
arabcenterdc.org | Imad K. Harb
Sudan’s ‘war of the generals’ between the Commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) will complete its second year this April 15 without definite signs of ending. Battle lines have shifted dramatically over the last few months in favor of the SAF, but so far this has not pointed to Burhan’s imminent and complete victory or to Dagalo’s withdrawal from the fight or his final defeat.
-
Mar 7, 2025 | 
arabcenterdc.org | Yara Asi |Heba Gowayed |Imad K. Harb |Khalil E. Jahshan
In response to President Donald Trump’s February 4 proposal to take over the Gaza Strip, displacing its indigenous Palestinians and transforming it into “the Riviera of the Middle East,” Arab leaders held on March 4 an extraordinary summit meeting in Cairo to discuss and endorse a rival Egyptian plan for the enclave’s reconstruction. The Egyptian plan proposes to rebuild Gaza in phases without displacing the Palestinians.
-
Feb 28, 2025 | 
arabcenterdc.org | Imad K. Harb
US President Donald Trump appears to have developed different ideas about Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi upon whom he bestowed the moniker “favorite dictator” during the 2019 G-7 meeting in France. At the time, the 45th president of the United States had developed a cordial relationship with the general-turned-president who six years earlier had staged a coup against Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and thwarted Egypt’s democratic experiment.
-
Jan 16, 2025 | 
arabcenterdc.org | Imad K. Harb
The election on January 9, 2025, of the Lebanese Army Commander Joseph Aoun as the fourteenth president of Lebanon can very well be the inauguration of the Lebanese Third Republic, a development that could usher in a new politics for the country.
-
Jan 15, 2025 | 
arabcenterdc.org | Khalil E. Jahshan |Daniel Brumberg |Dana El Kurd |Imad K. Harb
The monumental events that took place in the Middle East in 2024 augur radical changes in the region’s geopolitical environment. Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, its continued operations in southern Lebanon despite a negotiated ceasefire, and its illegal territorial expansion at the expense of Syria have helped erode international law as a guarantor of state sovereignty, peace, and security.
