Thursday, July 16, 2015

The Politics of the Middle East: Policy Maker, Players and Contractors By: Jamil Shawwa

The United States foreign policy since the beginning of the last century has been based on giving diplomacy a chance and sometimes multiple chances before acting, if needed, militarily; the only exception to that policy is terror groups seeking total destruction like ISIS and Al Qaeda; the United States as we speak and for the past twenty years has had open and covert dialogues with Taliban in Afghanistan, Hamas in Gaza and Hizbulla in Lebanon.

Politics and diplomacy are never based on dealing only with the good guys but they are mainly based on handling the bad guys or those whose role is to be the bad guys or wearing the bad guys hat and label.

Israel, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are the major players in the Middle East and the main partners of the United States in carrying out the overall US foreign policy; those countries never act alone and without coordination with US beyond their borders in the region.

The United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan are subcontractors; Hamas, Taliban and Hizbula carry out the dirty day to day work as needed and participate in the on and off negotiations as politics and situations require.

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