On January 29, an editorial by Mohammad Sarfi in the conservative Keyhan said: "While about a week has passed since Donald Trump started work as the new President of America, uncertainties and speculation about his alignments and policies - especially in the area of foreign policy continue on a vast scale. Trump's contradictory and nontransparent positions on various issues is such that Jeffrey Goldberg -- the well-known analyst and the editor of The Atlantic -- on one of the popular American television programmes says, recently the foreign minister of an Arab country asked me about Trump's policy on Iran and I improvised by saying: Trump, in the next four years, may enter a war with Iran and it is also possible for him to go to Iran to launch a series of hotels and golf courses there! I do not know! All these are debatable. Goldberg's reply reflects Trump's unpredictability. It means that he can have policies up to 180 degrees in opposition. But evidence shows that Trump will neither go to war with Iran, nor will he come to Iran to open a hotel and golf course. Of course Trump's signature yesterday on the executive order restricting travel to America by citizens of seven countries -- including Iran -- is a sign of the approach of the White House's new tenant. Yesterday Trump signed an order whose framework, we dare say, had been prepared in the Obama administration. However, we can still not say with certainty what Trump's diplomacy will be like. And if he also were asked this question, perhaps he would give an answer similar to that of the editor of The Atlantic! For he is currently grappling with more urgent and important challenges. Trump, as billionaire businessman who has now become President, and America, as a country that until few years ago was mulling over a unipolar world, is going through a difficult period and most likely in the days ahead it will go through a much more difficult period as well. The deeper and more extensive America's internal tension and challenge become, the more it may benefit Iran… (Read More)

On February 5, an editorial by Mohammad Imani in the conservative Keyhan daily said: "1. Our relationship with "the US consent and its wish to reprimand" is one of the focal points of strategic debates on the 38th anniversary of the victory of the Revolution. Two questions must be answered in order to find out about this relationship. First, is the United States our partner, competitor or enemy? Second, what is the balance of power between us and the United States, and which direction has this moved towards in the past four decades? After we have answered these two questions we will reach the main question, which is: Should we behave within the parameters set by the US reprimand, or should we break this framework based on the success of the Islamic Revolution? Some groups inside the country, despite speaking about their loyalty to the Revolution and Imam Khomeini's (peace be with him) school of thought, speak and act in a way as if each national effort to gain more power and to develop the country requires the United States' consent! They obviously do not say this so forthrightly, but whenever the United States mounts pressure, they and others worse than them, i.e. their political supporters and the media that claim support for them, consider issues relating to the national strength (such as the nuclear programme, regional influence, and missile programme) as a nuisance to national interests (and call for them to be restricted)… (Read More)

On February 14, the Saudi-owned London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper carried the following opinion piece by Turki Aldakhil: ““I am not afraid of Trump. America’s face has been uncovered, and we must thank the new American president for showing America’s true face, and exposing the political, moral and economic corruption in it, one about which Iran has been talking for decades.” This is the most recent statement by Guide of the Iranian Republic Khamenei against the US Administration. Yes, we are living in a new stage of major transformations after years of reactive isolation, seeing how America has gone back to intervening in the global crises and contributing to the management of their shifts, a thing to which a prominent academic and political figure such as Fouad Ajami had called... when he said that the previous administration was “hopeless” because it neglected the principle of “world order… (Read More)

On February 15, the Qatari-owned Al-Quds al-Arabi daily carried the following report by its Amman Office Chief Bassam Bdareen: “Nothing supports, at least officially, what was leaked by Lebanese papers regarding the launching of high-level contacts between Amman and the Damascus regime via the Syrian president’s brother, Maher al-Assad. This is because Jordan now enjoys two direct channels to remotely communicate with Bashar’s regime regarding whichever issue or information. The first and fastest channel is represented by the powerful and most prominent security man in Damascus, i.e. General Ali Mamlouk, who is being met from the Jordanian communication management cell’s end… by the most powerful security man in Jordan as well, i.e. General Faisal ash-Shawbaki. Security has been the link between the military institutions in both countries… (Read More)

On February 14, the An-Nahar daily newspaper carried the following report: “Two important developments were recently seen at the Palestinian camps in Lebanon, mainly Ain el-Helweh, the camp with the largest Palestinian community in Lebanon. The first development consists of the fact that the representative of the national Palestinian security forces in Lebanon and the commander of the joint Palestinian force, the prominent Fatah official in Ain el-Helweh, Munir Maqdah, has tendered his resignation from his post at the national security forces and the joint Palestinian force. The second development consists of the Fatah movement suspending its participation at the Palestinian higher security committee in Lebanon in addition to the PLO and the Palestinian People’s Party… (Read More)

On February 10, an interview with leading member of the Libyan National Struggle Front, Ahmad Qadhaf al-Damm, held by Abdessalam Sakia in the Algerian newspaper Echourouk el-Youmi said: "In an interview with Echourouk, a leading member of the Libyan National Struggle Front, Ahmad Qadhaf-al-Damm, discussed the latest developments in the Libyan issue and his stance regarding the Algerian mediation between various disputing parties in the crisis… (Read More)

On February 15, the Libyan Al-Wasat news website carried the following report from Cairo and Tripoli: “The efforts to organize a meeting between Head of the Presidential Council of the Libyan Government of National Accord Fayez as-Sarraj and Army General Commander Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar have failed, though both sides were present in the Egyptian capital Cairo, where they had landed on Monday February 13, 2017. At this level, Al-Wasat news website learned from reliable sources close to both sides that Field Marshal Haftar refused to meet with Sarraj, and put forward conditions featuring the introduction of wide-scale amendments to the political agreement. The meeting was supposed to take place on Monday, upon the arrival of the head of the Presidential Council and the Army commander to Cairo. However, it was postponed until Tuesday, before it was cancelled by Field Marshal Haftar… (Read More)

On February 15, Al-Mayadeen.net carried the following interview with Leader in Hamas Mahmoud az-Zahhar by its correspondent Mayssa Chedid… (Read More)

On February 15, the Qatari-owned Al-Quds al-Arabi daily carried the following report from Gaza: “Al-Quds al-Arabi has learned from Palestinian sources that a number of militants affiliated with Muhammad Dahlan’s group, the leader who was expelled from Fatah, have left the Gaza Strip on their way to Egypt during the last two days, to start arranging for the conference which the group intends to hold in the few coming weeks. And the same was done by a delegation representing dozens of youth from that group. While in the Egyptian capital Cairo, the latter delegation will hold a series of meetings with other leaders who are affiliated with Dahlan’s group and reside abroad, to coordinate their positions and seek ways to ensure the success of the conference which Dahlan intends to organize in rejection of Fatah’s 7th conference that was held in Ramallah City at the end of November of last year… (Read More)

On February 13, the Tunisian Assabah News website carried the following report by Nizar Makni: “The statements of Political Chief of the Arab Nationalist Guard Bassel al-Kharrat regarding the presence of Tunisian youth fighting in the ranks of the Guard’s brigades in Syria have started to take a political turn in Tunisia, especially after Head of Ennahda Bloc in the People’s Assembly Noureddine Bhiri said that the dispatch of Tunisians to Syria to join armed groups supporting Bashar al-Assad “undermined Tunisia’s national security.” In a comment on his personal page online, Bhiri continued: “Moreover, the dispatch of Tunisians to the tension pits and to Syria, without the state’s knowledge and in secret and illegal ways, is a violation of the country’s laws and a breaching of its security.” Bhiri’s statement came less than a week after Kharrat’s statement, in which he revealed the existence of a brigade that included Tunisian nationals, and was named after Martyr Mohamed Brahmi… (Read More)

On February 14, the electronic Rai al-Youm daily carried the following report: “Gulf diplomatic sources told Rai al-Youm that the present tour of Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that includes the three states of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, has yielded a division at the level of the Gulf. This was reflected through the social media networks especially as the countries that were left out of this tour, such as the UAE, Kuwait, and the Sultanate of Oman, share a rather neutral position concerning the Syrian file and their opposition of the political Islam… (Read More)

On February 14, Abdul Bari Atwan wrote the following piece in the electronic Rai al-Youm daily: “…Emerging pieces of news indicate that a trilateral summit meeting has taken place in Al-Riyadh between Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, the Saudi deputy crown prince and minister of defense, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, the Abu Dhabi crown prince and the deputy high commander of the Emirati armed forces, in addition to Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was angry upon his return from Aden where he had stayed for three days… (Read More)