"Desperate to preserve the nuclear deal, Iran with the help of its Western friends is creating just enough turmoil to make America, and not it, appear eager for war."

"In our podcast this week, Michael Doran joins Jonathan Silver to explain his essay and its argument. He discusses why the revoked waivers are so important, why the Iranians believe their strategy will work, and why the biases of European governments and some prominent American Democrats play right into Iranian hands."

"Trump and Congress could forge a new consensus by enacting a law making the nuclear limits permanent."

"On the strategic questions that matter in the Middle East, the president is cleareyed."

"Michael Doran joins the PBS NewsHour to discuss new evidence that suggests Saudi Arabia’s crown prince orchestrated the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, and how the U.S. will respond to its longtime ally."

"In presenting himself to his American friends, Khashoggi fashioned himself less the Islamist and more the democratic reformer. He made a tactical alliance with former Obama officials who seek to depict Trump’s pro-Saudi and anti-Iranian policy as a disaster."

"The S-400 crisis comes at a moment when tolerance for the government of President Erdoğan is in very short supply. In Washington, it will doubtlessly strengthen a dangerously self-fulfilling doctrine that took root several years ago among key constituencies, namely, that Turkey is no longer an ally. While the president and his advisors do not share this assessment, it is a virtual consensus in think tanks and on Capitol Hill, where people are commonly heard to remark that Turkey no longer belongs in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)."

"America needs to back up its allies (Israel, Saudi Arabia, and potentially Turkey), and isolate its adversaries (Iran, Russia, China, Islamic State). Everything else is secondary."

"The United States will be making an exit from Syria 'very soon,' President Trump said late last month in Ohio. 'Let the other people take care of it now.' In making this announcement, the president ignored a cardinal principle of an author he holds in very high regard: himself. According to 'The Art of the Deal,' Mr. Trump’s 1987 best-selling guide to business strategy, success in negotiations requires developing leverage. The crux of the matter is appearing unflappable while making the other guy sweat. 'The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it,' Mr. Trump wrote. 'That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you’re dead.'"

"By embarking for Saudi Arabia and Israel close on the heels of a meeting in Washington with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Mr. Trump is clearly signaling an appreciation of this elemental fact. He must now build on that fact to develop a Trump Doctrine, based on shoring up traditional allies against Iran. Such a plan, built on painstaking coalition building and maintenance, isn’t glamorous or inspiring. But good statesmanship requires recognizing the limits of what is possible. The choices in the Middle East are between very bad and much worse. Mr. Trump promised us steely-eyed realism. Here’s hoping he delivers on that pledge."

"The policies of the Obama administration led to carnage in Syria, regional chaos, and the rise of Iran and its alliance with Russia. Can the momentum be reversed—without going to war?"

"America’s Iran problem will remain until the theocracy cracks. Given the regime’s inability to escape the contradictions of its own making, that day is drawing closer. The U.S. needs stamina—and a clear understanding of how the enemy sees itself."

"The supreme leader is accustomed to seeing the West blink first. It happened when Barack Obama, alarmed by increasing uranium enrichment, offered significant concessions. Trump’s decision to stand down in the Persian Gulf after the downing of the U.S. drone in June has fortified the impression of an irresolute America. In the weeks and months to come, expect Khamenei to find new ways to test the president’s mettle."

"The 40th anniversary of the Iranian revolution has sparked the usual lamentations from many Iranians. They revolted for democracy only to have the Machiavellian mullahs hijack their revolution and squash its liberal aspirations."

"During the presidential campaign, the outlier in Donald Trump’s foreign-policy orations was his treatment of Iran. On Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Russia (remember President Barack Obama’s “off-mic” tête-à-tête with President Dmitry Medvedev?), and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Trump largely followed his predecessor. Differences existed, certainly in style and manner, but the overlap between the two men on most of the big foreign-policy questions was profound."

"President Trump has revived most of the U.S. sanctions on Iran that were dropped during Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic. More sanctions are coming. But to halt Iran’s march toward enriched uranium and functional ballistic missiles for good, the White House must convince more Americans and U.S. allies to join in raising pressure on the regime. The fruits of Tehran’s imperialism won’t wither until the world chokes its roots."

"Since the parameters of the Iranian nuclear accord became apparent in 2014 until Donald Trump canceled the deal on May 8, Washington essentially divided into three camps: those who supported the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, those who thought it was a seriously deficient accord but didn’t have the stomach to challenge it since that would oblige them to accept the risk of another war in the Middle East, and those who opposed the accord and were prepared to accept the risk of conflict."

"The range and depth of what the United States can do against the regime is large and far beyond the confines of this essay. Patience and perseverance and a willingness to use force, however, are required. Still, despite the president’s dim view of the nuclear agreement and the Islamic Republic, the odds are decent that Trump will follow the footsteps of President Obama: The Great American Retreat will continue. Obama’s most important legacy likely will survive."

"The saber-rattling out of the White House on Iran is getting a lot louder. Saudi oil ships mysteriously attacked. What’s actually going on, and what exactly is the White House plan?" A conversation with Nancy Youssef, Stephen Walt, and Reuel Marc Gerecht. 

"Since the 1979 revolution in Iran, the defining religious competition in the Middle East has been between Sunni Saudi Arabia and the Shi'ite Islamic Republic.  That clash was not initially sectarian.  The clerical regime in Tehran was, despite lapses now and then in Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's rhetoric, explicitly ecumenical:  the Iranians wanted to appeal to Sunni Muslims worldwide by depicting themselves as the true paladin against America and the West."

A conversation between John Batchelor of "The John Batchelor Show" and Reuel Marc Gerecht. 

"Many Americans remain wary, if not hostile, to the idea of democracy promotion in the Middle East. The Iraq War, which wasn’t launched to bring people power to Mesopotamia, is seen by most critics as the great catastrophe of Americans who wanted to export representative government. The failure of the “Arab Spring” to produce anything but bloodshed and continuing autocracy beyond Tunisia, where the region-wide revolt started in 2010 and democracy has held, has further reinforced the view that the United States really shouldn’t back a rootless, convulsive cause. The American right sees Muslims as a bad Enlightenment bet; the left is more critical of Middle Eastern tyrannies (except in Iran and the Palestinian territories) but is extremely averse to “nation-building” in Islamic lands."

An interview with Bernard Haykel. 

A capsule review of "Saudi Arabia in Transition: Insights on Social, Political, Economic and Religious Change" by Bernard Haykel. 

"'If the U.S. is going after Iran because it’s behaving in a way that’s incompatible with how nation-states should behave … the same standard should hold for Saudi Arabia,' said Bernard Haykel, director of the Institute for Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East at Princeton University, during a workshop panel on U.S. involvement overseas."

"Princeton Professor Bernard Haykel, who has regular contact with the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammad Bin Salman, weighs-in on U.S.-Saudi relations and developments on this story."

"As unpalatable as cooperation with the kingdom might be for some, cutting it adrift is worse. Whatever the resentments, neither side has a realistic alternative to the other — something President Obama has clearly had difficulty reconciling himself to."

"Christiane Amanpour speaks with Bernard Haykel, an academic who often speaks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman."

"Princeton professor Bernard Haykel says Obama’s motivation in the nuclear agreement with Iran is his legacy and that it will further destabilize the region because of Iran’s use of proxies."

"The White House is mulling whether Tehran can help it defeat the jihadi threat in Iraq. But a U.S.-Iran alliance would be a disaster for Washington and the Middle East."

"Bernard Haykel, Princeton University, provides insight to the failed coup in Turkey and shares his thoughts on President Erdogan's political motives."

"Since Israel’s deadly raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara last month, it’s been assumed that Iran would be the major beneficiary of the wave of global anti-Israeli sentiment. But things seem to be playing out much differently: Iran paradoxically stands to lose much influence as Turkey assumes a surprising new role as the modern, democratic and internationally respected nation willing to take on Israel and oppose America."