Faisal Saeed Al Mutar

06/10/2026

Grateful to have joined the panel "The Middle East in Turmoil: Geopolitical Wars and the Future of Democratic Governance" at the Oslo Freedom Forum, alongside Gissou Nia (Iran), Lynn (Lebanon), and Mohamad (Syria).

.harfoush

I made two arguments:

First, for people in Iraq and across the region to build a real democracy, they have to start by seeing their neighbors as human beings and forging a new identity rooted in citizenship rather than sectarian and tribal loyalties.

Second, instead of an Axis of Resistance, the region needs an Axis of Prosperity, one that puts the wellbeing of its own citizens ahead of the interests of regional and international players. Without that, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen are not countries. They are battlefields.

Proud to do both of these things at

What struck me most, and saddened me, was how much we all shared. The parallels between Iraq and Lebanon especially were hard to ignore: two countries where sectarian power-sharing was sold as stability and delivered paralysis instead.

We were completing each other's sentences..

Special thanks to the for having me back for a third time.

We had a fully packed venue.

Video should up this week.

06/08/2026

Are we getting the worst of both worlds?

Everyone wants to argue about who won the latest war in the middle east.

Israel?
Iran?
The United States?

I have a different question.

If you are a successful local investor, would you invest it in the region today?

If you are a foreign investor looking for the next place to build a factory, open an office, launch a startup, or create jobs, would you choose the the middle east?

If the answer is no, then who exactly won?

The Middle East is experiencing one of the worst investment environments in years. Airports have been disrupted, shipping routes threatened, insurance costs have increased, tourism has been hit, and economic growth forecasts across the region have been sharply downgraded. The IMF cut its 2026 growth forecast for the Middle East and North Africa from nearly 4% to around 1%, one of the largest downward revisions in recent memory.

Meanwhile, millions of young people are entering labor markets that are already struggling to find any job.

Before we debate military victories, perhaps we should ask a more important question:

Can young people build a future there?

Because if an entire generation's dream is not to build companies, invent products, buy homes, or raise families, but simply to get smuggled on a boat to Europe or win a visa lottery, then everybody has lost.

That is the worst outcome of all.

This is the true measure of success, not who controls a strait or who fired the last missile.

Right now, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find.

05/25/2026

I wasn't wrong.

🔴 The US military conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran today to protect troops from threats posed by Iranian forces, including missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines, CENTCOM Spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins tells Al Arabiya English.

🔴 CENTCOM continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire, Hawkins adds.

05/25/2026

This is fake news. I am mostly sure this never happened.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman privately told evangelical leader and Trump ally Mike Evans that he was ready to recognize Israel “today,” but that his father, King Salman, remained the obstacle.

05/25/2026

As for Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords: I wrote in The Hill more than a year ago that Saudi Arabia will NOT join the Accords anytime soon.

Any other talk is delusional in my opinion.

Unlike any other country in the Arab and Muslim world, the King of Saudi Arabia holds the title of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (Mecca and Medina), and the Kingdom welcomes up to 20 million Muslim visitors a year, most of whom sympathize with the Palestinian cause and are hostile to Israel.

Unlike other countries, Saudi Arabia can't be selective about who it lets in or conduct massive security and background checks on every visitor.

Doing so would be logistically and politically costly and, I would argue, deadly.

They have said many times (more than a 100) that they won't sign unless there is a Palestinian state.

The official position of Israel is that there will be no Palestinian state.

So, long story short: this discussion is over.

Regardless of how much Saudi Arabia wants to strengthen its alliance with the United States, which it openly does.

I will turn Vegan if it will happen.

05/25/2026

The US-Iran 'deal' looks too good to be true.

Iran joining the Abraham Accords? What? Really?

And every time we've been here, the American version of the deal and the Iranian version of the deal turn out to be completely different documents.

War resuming? Likely.

Regime change in Iran? Not likely, and I keep saying this.

Iran isn't Iraq or Syria.

Those Ba'athist regimes were ideologically empty long before they fell.

America sent 100s of 1000s of troops to Iraq.

That's definitely not the case here and won't be the case anytime soon.

Iran is ideological, resilient, and far more complicated than outside observers (especially diaspora voices in LA and Virginia who left 50 years ago) want to admit.

So where does this go? From the US/Israeli side: bomb and figure it out later. From the Iranian side: regime survival IS victory.

It is 'Inshalla' style type of war.

Inshalla can mean yes, maybe and no at the same time.

So anything can happen.

05/21/2026

Many of you have been asking me what’s really going on with the latest attacks from Iraq targeting Saudi Arabia and the UAE. To understand this, we need to start with a little history.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, established in 1979, is not just a country. it is also an ideological project. Since its founding, Iran has worked to build what later became known as the “Axis of Resistance.”

The proposed goals of the Axis are three things:

1. Wipe out Israel.
2. Destroy American interests in the Middle East.
3. Establish Iran as the new leader of the region.

At the time, Iraq was ruled by Saddam Hussein, who launched an eight year war against Iran. Hundreds of thousands died on both sides, but the war ultimately failed to stop the spread of the Iranian revolutionary project.

Then came 2003.

The United States removed Saddam Hussein, which also removed the main barrier preventing Iranian influence from expanding deeply into Iraq and was extremely brutal against anyone who stands in his way killing tens of thousands if not more.

The political parties and militias supported by Iran since 1979 gradually became the dominant power in Iraq. These forces eventually formed what is now called the “Coordination Framework” the coalition of Shiite Islamist parties aligned with Tehran.

Over the last decade, these groups have effectively controlled the selection of Iraq’s prime ministers and shaped the state around preserving the Iranian Iraqi alliance.

After the U.S. withdrawal, Iraq increasingly became integrated into the Axis of Resistance. Both the Bush and Obama administrations believed that supporting the Iraqi government would help stabilize the country and limit Iranian expansion. Instead, the opposite happened.

Today, Iraq functions less as an independent state and more as an Iranian client state.

This is the context behind the attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE maintain strong relationships with the West, especially the United States. Pressure through regional escalation is designed to influence those relationships and discourage continued confrontation with Iran and its allies.

The Iraqi government publicly claims it does not control the militias responsible for these attacks.

But these militias receive salaries, legitimacy, and institutional cover from the Iraqi state itself. In practice, the distinction is meaningless.

The Iraqi government’s role today is often to maintain just enough international legitimacy to keep financial systems open while militias and networks tied to Iran operate through the state structure itself.

This is why Iraq cannot be viewed separately from Iran in strategic terms. The conversation is not truly about Iraq as an independent actor.

it is about Iran’s regional project, with Iraq serving as one of its primary vehicles specially after the fall of Assad in Syria and the weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

That is the reality many in the region are now forced to confront.

05/11/2026

The Longest Internet Shutdown in Human History

Since January, repeated and sustained disruptions have reduced Iran’s connectivity to a fraction of normal levels, leaving millions technically online but unable to communicate beyond national borders

05/09/2026

Friends in the UK, what do you make of the results of your municipal elections?

05/08/2026

Nine years ago, Ideas Beyond Borders started with a simple belief:

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