Experts on the Middle East
Among the most daunting policy challenges for the Obama administration is the Middle East. In the latest CFR Forum, Middle East experts blog on what the United States should–and shouldn’t–do in the region. Here’s a summary of what the experts are saying so far:
- Aaron David Miller, Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, says a deal resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “simply not feasible now,” and says the United States should instead focus on negotiating an Israeli-Syrian agreement.
- American Enterprise Institute Resident Scholar Michael Rubin advises the new administration to let the possible establishment by the President Bush of a U.S. Interest Section in Tehran “drop.” He says the initiative is “ill-thought and poorly-timed.”
- Rachel Bronson, vice president of Programs and Studies at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, urges Obama to quickly name a senior representative to go to the Middle East. “It will set back U.S. interests dramatically if he waits to put his cabinet in place, put a senior staff in place, think about a representative and only then, months or a year later establish a presence,” she writes.
Check in here for more expert updates to this CFR Forum.
