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6 days ago | 
english.aawsat.com | Abdulrahman al-Rashed |Mustafa Fahs |Hazem Saghieh |Amir Taheri
Some are preempting US President Donald Trump’s expected visit to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf next month by discussing the promised three trillion dollars, suggesting it should be conditional upon achieving political deals – ranging from Gaza to a Palestinian state, to Yemen and Iran. First, these are business deals, including civil, military, and investment projects – not political trade-offs.
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6 days ago | 
english.aawsat.com | Mustafa Fahs |Hazem Saghieh |Amir Taheri |Hanna Saleh
Between Aoun's insistence on the state monopolizing arms and Hezbollah reverting back to its position on maintaining its arms, reproducing its previous taboos and reiterating the notorious threat “to cut off the hand that reaches for the weapons,” Lebanon (its state, people, sectarian and political parties) face two opposing challenges.
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6 days ago | 
english.aawsat.com | Hazem Saghieh |Amir Taheri |Hanna Saleh |Tariq Al-Homayed
A few days ago, on the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the Lebanese war, the culture of shirking responsibility for this conflict beamed once again. Several writers and observers have pointed to some manifestations of this culture whose prevalence has not been hindered by its corruption. The war is "the events," or the "inauspicious" or "painful" events - terminology that is meant to downplay its belligerent identity and emphasize its emotional impact while also obscuring its real makers.
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6 days ago | 
english.aawsat.com | Amir Taheri |Hanna Saleh |Tariq Al-Homayed |Hazem Saghieh
It was barely a month ago when TV watchers across the globe saw a show in which new US president Donald Trump treated visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as one of those voodoo dolls made for pushing needles into thus dodging a curse. After the show TV talking heads speculated that having come to the White House dressed as a rockstar rather than a statesman, Zelensky had angered Trump and thus deserved what he got.
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1 week ago | 
english.aawsat.com | Tariq Al-Homayed |Hazem Saghieh |Eyad Abu Shakra |Abdulrahman al-Rashed
Since October 7, 2023, and in the aftermath of war in Gaza and Lebanon, Iranian-Israeli skirmishes, and the much-touted but ultimately hollow talk of "unified fronts", a new dynamic has emerged. One I would call "converging tracks". Anyone observing the region today will detect a new common thread stretching from Iran to Lebanon, passing through Gaza, Yemen, and Iraq: disarmament. Or, more precisely, the convergence of disarmament trajectories.
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1 week ago | 
english.aawsat.com | Hazem Saghieh |Eyad Abu Shakra |Abdulrahman al-Rashed |Ghassan Charbel
We often read two histories in history books, though one could, for a brief time, eclipse the other. One is the history of wars, which is studded with events like the conquests of Hannibal and Alexander, the Babylonian captivity, the Hundred Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars, the American Civil War, and the two World Wars... The other is that of achievements, both material and immaterial alike, in production, trade, institutions, and transportation.
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2 weeks ago | 
english.aawsat.com | Amir Taheri |Hazem Saghieh |Hanna Saleh |Tariq Al-Homayed
Despite the great deal of sound and fury that it has generated, it is perhaps too early to assess the lasting impact of President Donald Trump’s latest fireworks on tariffs. Some things, however, are certain. Contrary to assertions by talking heads on the small screen, we are not heading for a global trade war. True, the US is the world’s biggest economy and ranks second as a trading power. But its share of world trade hovers around 12 percent or under 10 percent of its GDP.
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2 weeks ago | 
english.aawsat.com | Hanna Saleh |Tariq Al-Homayed |Jeanna Smialek |Nabil Amr
The most dangerous impediment to the Lebanese authorities’ current efforts to restore the state is that the country sits atop a dangerous minefield of “zombie” weapons and “zombie” banks. The camp of illegitimate arms intimidates rivals by clinging to narratives that defend its maintenance.
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2 weeks ago | 
english.aawsat.com | Hazem Saghieh |Hanna Saleh |Tariq Al-Homayed |Jeanna Smialek
A combination of two intertwined tendencies is driving the behavior of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel: absolute exceptionalism and pre-emptive-ness that feeds on assumptions of the worst intentions. Exceptionalism, in this sense, amounts to suspending the ordinary, with its laws and norms, and considering the capacity to impose this suspension an exclusive right reserved only to the party behind it. Meanwhile, the world is split into absolute enemies and absolute friends, with nothing in between.
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2 weeks ago | 
english.aawsat.com | Tariq Al-Homayed |Jeanna Smialek |Nabil Amr |Hazem Saghieh
There are several ways to interpret what we saw from the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. However, one thing we are sure of is that Trump knows exactly what he wants and how to get it, and he pursues it relentlessly.