The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer

  By James M. Dorsey Hi, if you value independent, fact-based analysis, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscribers help ensure the survival of The Turbulent World’s unvarnished journalism. You can contribute by clicking on Substack on the subscription button at  http://jamesmdorsey.substack.com and choosing one of  the subscription options.  To watch a video version of this story   or  listen to a n audio podcast click  here .  Thank you for your support and loyalty.  Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is likely to discover that the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will not shift the paradigm of Middle East politics. It’s a lesson Mr. Netanyahu should have drawn from decades of Israeli targeted assassinations. Mr. Nasrallah joined a long list of leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and an assortment of others, including...

  By James M. Dorsey Hi, if you value independent, fact-based analysis, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscribers help ensure the survival of The Turbulent World’s unvarnished journalism. You can contribute by clicking on Substack on the subscription button at  http://jamesmdorsey.substack.com and choosing one of  the subscription options.    To watch a video version of this story   or  listen to a n audio podcast click   here .    Thank you for your support and loyalty.    It will take a lot more to convince Israel and its supporters that newly elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian means business and can deliver on his proposal to dial down tensions between the two countries.   “Let’s create a situation where we can co-exist. Let’s try to resolve tensions through dialogue,” Mr. Pezeshkian said as hostilities between Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite militia, and Israel escalated...

  Credit: Aramco Life By James M. Dorsey Hi, if you value independent, fact-based analysis, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscribers help ensure the survival of The Turbulent World’s unvarnished journalism.  You can contribute by clicking on Substack on the subscription button at  http://jamesmdorsey.substack.com and choosing one of  the subscription options.    To watch a video version of this story    or  listen to a n audio podcast click  here    .    Thank you for your support and loyalty. A Saudi push to become a major natural gas player is as much about diversifying the kingdom’s domestic consumption and export mix as it is about cementing Saudi Arabia as a global geopolitical, economic, and energy player. It also is about capitalizing on harsh US economic sanctions against Iran designed to force a change in the Islamic Republic’s policies. Iran is home to the world’s second-largest gas...

  On TRT World, James M. Dorsey, adjunct senior fellow at Singapore's S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, weighs in on Israel-Hezbollah tensions following the deadly pager blasts in Lebanon, and considers whether Washington has any leverage to prevent the conflict spiralling out of control. Watch the interview at https://jamesmdorsey.substack.com/p/does-the-us-have-any-leverage-on Thank you for joining me today. I am grateful to those who have   become paid subscribers. I need some more to enable me to continue cutting through the fog of kinetic and information wars and offer fact-based analysis. No doubt, you will have noticed that The Turbulent World has no sponsors and no advertisers. This guarantees the column and podcast’s independence. Instead, The Turbulent World depends on the support of its readers and listeners to cover the cost of producing the column and podcast. You can contribute by clicking on the Substack subscription button at https://jamesmdors...

  Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei walk a tripwire By James M. Dorsey Thank you for joining me today. Thousands across the globe are avid readers and listeners of The Turbulent World. Join them in helping me maintain and expand the column and podcast by b ecoming a paid supporter. Paid subscribers have access to the full archive, exclusive posts and polling, can leave comments, join debates, and know they are supporting independent writing, reporting, and analysis that lets the chips fall where they fall. You can contribute by going to https://jamesmdorsey,substack.com and choosing one of the subscription options.   To watch a video version of this story or listen to an audio podcast click here.   Thank you for your support and loyalty.   Iran and its Arab allies may not want an out Middle East war, but that has not stopped them from increasingly engaging Israel on multiple fronts. The Iranian-backed strategy aims to...