Mass protests are gripping Iran as its people express their discontent with crippling poverty, governmental corruption, and Tehran's highly expensive sponsorship of terrorist proxies around the Middle East. The protests are geographically widespread, rural and urban, and challenge the very sinews of Iran's mullahcracy. The United States can and should support Iranian freedom by pressuring the regime at its most vulnerable point, oil revenues. This strategy should have long- and short-term components, both designed to decrease global oil prices. 

A speedy but proper resolution of the standoff with Qatar is clearly in American interests. Consistent with President Trump’s May 20 Riyadh speech, and his just-announced plan of action against Iran, such a resolution must include Doha’s cessation of all forms of support for extremist Islamic movements and the end of its flirtation with Tehran.

A series of circumstances currently present Israelis and Palestinians with a unique opportunity to resolve their historic conflict. The first of these was the election of President Donald Trump, who seems genuinely motivated by the challenge of succeeding where all his predecessors have failed: to bring peace to Israel-Palestine. Indeed, the president’s many naysayers, veterans of all previous failed efforts to resolve the conflict, seem to only increase Trump’s motivation to attempt the impossible. “We’re working very hard on it,” he recently said in New York, “Historically, people say it can’t happen. I say it can happen.”

The Saudi coalition knows what the experiences of numerous Muslim governments have long proven: the Muslim Brotherhood is an oppositionist movement that does not represent a sustainable form of governance, offers little in the way of  social or economic programmes, and some of its members have been linked to political violence and jihadist terror.

The Intelligence and Defense Projects at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center has named Nawaf Obaid as its first Visiting Fellow. 

Belfer Center Fellow Nawaf Obaid joins European Council on Foreign Relations' Daniel Levy in discussing Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy related to ongoing changes in Iran, Syria, and elsewhere in the region. The discussion, as noted by the ECFR, explores the interests driving Saudi foreign policy, the extent to which it is prepared to assert its own vision for the region, what that vision is and the ramifications on Riyadh's relations with the West; and to what extent regional and European alliances cabplay a more central role in Saudi strategy.

Nawaf Obaid spoke at the European Council on Foreign Relations on November 22, 2013 about "A New Assertive Saudi Arabia."

To hear Obaid's comments during the ECFR event, click here.