21 Comments
User's avatar
Nicholas Coulson's avatar

Fascinating to get the views of such intelligent and articulate Arab scholar/politician on the damage Iran has done to so many Arab countries.

Majik's avatar

Thank you for this brilliant elucidation of the most complex problem or, actually, set of problems that our world has ever faced. But I’m sorry to inform you that the vast majority of Americans have the attention span of a gnat and that tragic fact is being manipulated to orchestrate our destruction. That and there are diabolical forces at work, and I mean that literally. I pray that my assessment is wrong. May God in Heaven help us!

Bill Darrow's avatar

A clear, bold voice advancing important ideas that America, for all its First Amendment piety, entirely overlooks.

Marc Svetov's avatar

Thank you, Zineb! It's a revelation to hear Arab voices ... The Western legacy media is effectively recycling mullah propaganda just like the Western legacy media did with Hamas ... propaganda accepted and broadcast as news ... How did the West get so lost?

NGHIA NGUYEN's avatar

Merci bien. Votre vision est strategique et surtout morale!

Dr. John V. Bowlus's avatar

Excellent piece and West does not get this! You distilled it very nicely. I am enjoying being a (relatively new) subscriber.

Keith's avatar

This is one of the very best things I’ve read in a very long time. Thank you.

Charles St-Louis's avatar

Le prisme d’analyse que vous employez pour dégager les différentes perceptions dans le monde arabe en lien avec le conflit en cours est fort rafraîchissant. En espérant que l’étendue du spectre obtenu puisse atteindre ne serait-ce que le Quai d’Orsay, l’Auswartiges Amt, le Foreign Office ou bien même encore, que sais-je, le Foggy Bottom. Une nouvelle fois bravo pour votre travail.

Marc Svetov's avatar

"These Arabs — I am astonished. At this time of calamity, destruction, and death, you sympathize with Iran? How do you sympathize with Iran? I ask God Almighty — those of you who sympathize with Iran — to truly set Iran upon you, so you feel its fire and see what Iran is. You who sympathize do not understand Iran. If you understood Iran, you would not sympathize with it." From Zineb's citation of Professor Faiq al-Sheik Ali ...

Alex-GPT's avatar

per usual, this is fantastic analytic writing

FreeFrench's avatar

Insightful and enlightening - thanks so much Zineb!

Rachel's avatar

Thank you for the excellent work and valuable perspective

Jean-Marc Pelletier's avatar

"... a civilization that has spent forty years watching the Islamic Republic erode its institutional, theological, and cultural foundations..."

Humm A great civilization watching Iran erode its institutional, theological and cultural foundations... Let's put that in relation with Jamal Khashoggi's dismemberment at Saudi's consulate in Istanbul? Or about how foreign workers are treated in the GCC states?

I don't mean to say that Iran displays a great sense of morality but let's not promote an idyllic vision of these states and their cultural foundations...

Troy Klingler's avatar

The only message the Middle East needs to hear is, “if you fuck with the United States, we will bomb you to rubble.” Saddam chose to fuck with us. So did Iran.

p.traegercxx@proton.me's avatar

Here is a man who thinks for himself, apparently not controlled by influential forces. He is deserving of our respect. His observations are valuable tools for communicating what is happening in the Middle East. The problem is, how do we get the American government to listen and take heed?

DH's avatar

Appreciate your writing. If so, why did the Arab states / groups not join the fight?

Alex-GPT's avatar
6hEdited

my guess is, why join it directly if they don't have to? why not let the US military do virtually all the "heavy lifting."

and also, we don't know (can't know and shouldn't know) how their intelligence services have been contributing to targeting analysis etc etc etc, my guess is that it has been very significant

Mark Monaghan's avatar

I agree on both points. The Gulf states have invested untold billions in state-of-the-art hardware, and presumably personnel and training. What has it been for if not this? (I know, they don't all exactly get along, but couldn't some of it be directed across the Gulf?)