“What will happen with U.S. President Donald Trump’s ‘deal of the century’? It’s a question everyone in Israel is asking these days: Some want to know what’s in the Trump peace plan, others want to know if it will ever be unveiled, and still others are interested in whether it has any chance of success. “I make no claims to know what is in Trump advisors Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt’s plan, and given that Israelis are going back to the [...]

"President Trump is a belligerent isolationist. In keeping with what was historically a real, if fringe, strain of thinking about America’s approach to the world, Trump favors unilateralism over alliances that carry obligations and responsibilities. The paradox, of course, is that anyone who disclaims any interest in being the world’s policeman needs allies. "Nowhere is that more evident than in the escalating tensions with Iran. The Islamic republic is practicing its own version of “maximum pressure” on the United States and [...]

"'It’s not surprising that you have a kind of revisitation of the AUMF because here you have what looks like the potential for a kind of real escalation,' said Dennis Ross, the veteran Middle East negotiator, referring to the 2001 bill that authorized military action against any national or individual involved in the 9/11 attacks. “'In the 2001 AUMF, there’s actually no real relationship to this,' Ross added. 'It certainly didn’t name Iran and there comes a point where many in [...]

"Another significant development is the announcement by Egypt and Jordan that they would send a delegation to Bahrain. Ross says that we should wait and see who is representing each country. “'You may have these countries simply send their local ambassadors. You need to wait to see what the level is going to be. If the level is low, that also is a political signal. They don’t want to do something that the administration would view as being hostile, but they [...]

"Now, with Israel heading to elections on September 17, and as America has its own major election gearing up, former US diplomats and experts on the region say that Trump’s proposal may not see the light of day any time soon. 'Obviously, it means putting off until after the government is formed,' said Ambassador Dennis Ross, a veteran American diplomat who has worked on the Israeli-Palestinian portfolio for decades. "'That means, given the timing of the election and the holidays, you’re [...]

"...'It strikes me that we are in the middle of an unprecedented and multifaceted experiment in the application of brute force,' said Daniel Russel, who was assistant secretary of state on Asian affairs in the Obama administration. 'President Trump has been extraordinarily effective at generating leverage... but it has yet to be shown that he has the ability to translate that leverage into results that are advantageous to the United States or are durable.'" Read the full article here: Full Article

"Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, has long maintained that the U.S. will never be satisfied with Iranian concessions until the Islamic Republic itself is conceded. This view informs the long-standing position of Iranian officials that they will not negotiate with the U.S. under pressure. "Unsurprisingly, the Iranian response to the recent intensification of the Trump administration’s 'maximum pressure' campaign has been to test and expose the limits of American resolve, by triggering a series of sabotage and proxy attacks, against [...]