Abdulrahman Al-Rashed

Merchants of rumors and conspiracy theorists, much like merchants of war, feed off people’s fears and anxieties.

Talk of restoring the shah’s monarchy has surged since the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran two weeks ago, more than at any time since the fall of the Pahlavi regime in the late 1970s.

Major defeats are often born of major miscalculations. The 1967 war between Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Israel; Sharon’s invasion of Beirut and the expulsion of Fatah (PLO) in 1982; Saddam Hussein’s invasion and occupation of Kuwait in 1990 despite the massive military buildup against him.

Our region is strewn with long-buried landmines, any one of which could spark unintended consequences. This is not meant to refer to the Saudi-Emirati dispute in southern Yemen, despite it being one of today’s heated issues that could still be resolved through direct talks.

Ending the nuclear program and stopping external activity could spare Iran foreign intervention that enables internal change by exploiting widespread domestic unrest. 

The renewed activity of Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in Syria brings us back to reexamining the events that first brought Al-Qaeda into Syria. Yes, it is Al-Qaeda itself.

Venezuela’s two “former” leaders, the late Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro, somehow resemble figures from the Middle East — Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Khomeini and Muammar Qaddafi. They were famous for bombastic speeches, populist slogans and zero achievements.