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Talk of the "Grand Bargain" is once again finding its way to theories on the relationship between the United States and Iran, in light of their mutual...

New York -- Iran's leadership has purposely coupled the features of its deal on the nuclear issue with the five permanent Security Council member-stat...

The danger of relying on the "no-policy" policy from now until the month of November does not lie only in its regional repercussions in the Middle East, but also in what the United States might inherit.

The Arab Summit scheduled to be held next week in Baghdad is of the utmost importance for the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Things are getting more complicated and obscure with the emergence of the Iranian question as an Israeli and American priority. U.S. officials are saying that while they are not fond of the idea of the U.S. taking part in arming the opposition, they do not mind if others do so.

Confronting Iran in Syria would not have been part of the GCC's plans had the Syrian people not rebelled, and had the regime in Damascus not committed such grave mistakes.

The Gulf-Western alliance has taken the decision to confront Russia on the issue of Syria, and it presumes that the regime will be gone by the end of the year. Indeed, the strategy to implement this has been set in motion.

Much anxiety accompanies the first anniversary of the eruption of the Arab uprisings -- and much wavering between disappointment and hope. There is confusion, uncertainty and vacillation between optimism and pessimism.

This indeed is the most important card Putin holds: the fact that Obama will not go to war in Syria, that he will not go to war in Iran, and that it is out of the question for him to escalate against Russia or China -- he, the advocate of peace.

Next year will be a difficult one. It is then a dangerous year after the change, unless the powers of modernity and enlightenment change course and surprise us with feats that would restore our hope in the Arab awakening.

Today, the world is watching in terror as the Syrian authorities step up their crackdown on the protesters and as the odds for Syria sliding into civil war soar to new heights with dissent being forced into becoming an armed insurgency.

President Barack Obama has taken his containment policy through partnership to a new level this week by crowning Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki as a strategic player in the Arab-Iranian-Turkish equation.

The leaders of Russian diplomacy repeatedly bring up the "Libyan scenario" in order to scream "not in Syria," pointing to what they describe as the West "deceiving" them through. They are against regime change.

Egypt should not be held hostage between Military Council leader Tantawi and Moslem Brotherhood spiritual leader Sheikh Yousef Qaradawi. It is an important laboratory for the Arab future, not that of Egypt alone.

The next few days will be difficult for the governments of Iran and Syria, which are responding to international criticism by handing out accusations of treason, interference and conspiracy.

All Gulf Arabs perhaps view Iran's ambitions from the same perspective, yet their views on how such ambitions should be dealt with certainly differ.

The golden age of the Iranian-Syrian-Hezbollah trio has been radically eroded, and the countdown has begun to a new alternative inspired by the Arab Spring.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia sit on opposite sides of the spectrum, the first a Sunni state defined by its secularism, the latter a Sunni state defined by its sect, and yet the countries have never been closer.

The tug-of-war phase has entered the danger zone, not only as a result of the military approach which Damascus has so far clung to bleeding the Syrian people, but also in light of the broader choices the regime might resort to in Damascus and Tehran.

President Barack Obama is currently focused on domestic challenge. However, this should not blind the U.S. Administration, for example, to the urgent need to correct the strange disrepair in its relations with Saudi Arabia.

Below the surface, things may not be as quiet as these governments like to believe. In the Arab Gulf states, the core demands of their citizens who protested earlier in the year have so far not been met.

Europe must find symbolic means and a comprehensive long-term political and economic vision for the nature of Europe's relations with its southern neighbors.

As the Gulf Cooperation Council expands, the Arab world will be split into the monarchical and the republican regimes. Will this herald a new Arab Cold War or will the spirit of the Arab Spring us into a more promising future?

I'm not arguing that Shiites have a lot in common with rodents and insects. But you wouldn't know it by watching Bahrainis and Saudis snuff them out with barely a peep from Western and majority-Sunni Arab nations.

Three issues have plagued the region for decades and threaten to derail progress at every turn. I call them the Mideast's "Stink Bombs" -- hyper-divisive issues that inflame passions and serve a politicized minority only.