The official reaction of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to the July 14, 2015 announcement of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 brought to the surface the disagreements among the GCC member states over this issue. Most of the Gulf states, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, issued official declarations in response to the announcement of the deal, sending congratulatory letters to Iran's leaders expressing hope that the agreement would aid regional ...
The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, you must be a paying member of the JTTM; for membership information, send an email to jttmsubs@memri.org /* */ with "Membership" in the subject line.) Note to media and government: For a full copy of these reports, send ...
Introduction In an interview with Thomas Friedman of The New York Times ("Obama Makes His Case on Iran Nuclear Deal," July 14, 2015), President Obama asked that the nuclear deal with Iran be judged only by how successfully it prevents Iran from attaining a nuclear bomb, not on "whether it is changing the regime inside of Iran" or "whether we are solving every problem that can be traced back to Iran." However, in many interviews he has given over the last few years, he has revealed a strategy ...
On August 3, 2015, a series of meetings took place in the Qatari capital Doha, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and foreign ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. The meetings, which focused on the July 14, 2015 nuclear deal with Iran - the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - and on the situations in Yemen and Libya, as well as on the Syria crisis and the status of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, culminated in a ...
Following the assassination of Egypt's prosecutor-general, Hisham Barakat, on July 29, 2015, and ISIS's terror attack in Sinai two days later, in which some 70 Egyptian soldiers were killed, the Egyptian press directed harsh criticism at Qatar and Turkey, accusing them of financing terror in Egypt and other Middle East countries. Articles stated that Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Qatar under Sheikh Tamim Aal Thani, support the extremist terrorist organizations in the region ...
In an interview with the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai that was published July 5, 2015, Sunni Iraqi MP and leader of the Ummah Party Mithal Al-Alusi said that the Arabs and Muslims are responsible for the emergence of the Islamic State (ISIS). Arguing that ISIS the organization is an Arab and Muslim creation because it was they who allowed extremist views, a vengeance mentality, and nullification of the other, he called for combating this approach, and for uniting the Arab and Muslim ranks in the ...
The Bashar Al-Assad regime in Syria and Hizbullah in Lebanon, both of which are allies of Iran, were overjoyed at the announcement of the Iran-P5+1 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. They called it "a huge victory" for the entire resistance axis, and "an historic turning point" that would shift the balance of power in the region and globally. President Assad sent a congratulatory letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei expressing his delight at the "huge victory" that he said was ...
The announcement of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between Iran and the P5+1 has sparked widespread reactions in the Gulf states. The leaders of most of these countries, with the exclusion of Saudi Arabia, issued official responses that included congratulatory letters to Iranian President Hassan Rohani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, expressing hope that the agreement would promote stability in the region. In contrast, Gulf newspapers were filled with editorials and op-eds expressing ...
