Iran bares its teeth, while its rivals mend fences
Saudi Arabia has brought Qatar back into the fold, as Iran stirs things up in the Gulf
THE THIRD day of January marked a year since America assassinated Qassem Suleimani, a talismanic Iranian general who marshalled militias across the Middle East. The mood was febrile. American officials feared commemorative reprisals. Muhammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, tweeted that “intelligence from Iraq” indicated an American “plot to FABRICATE pretext for war”. The USS Nimitz, an American aircraft-carrier, having been ordered home from the Persian Gulf days earlier as a conciliatory gesture to Iran, was told to stay put. In the end, January 3rd passed without incident. Yet the day that followed was anything but uneventful.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “The Arabs get back in line”
From the January 9th 2021 edition
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