Category: Republican

Republican Foreign Policy

Has Senator Cruz been Misinformed About Western Sahara or What?

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Counterpunch, April 27, 2026: by Bill Fletcher Jr. – Stephen Zunes
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), along with Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rick Scott R-FL), have introduced a bill targeting what they call the “Iranian Regime’s Polisario Front,” designating that popular North African nationalist movement as a “terrorist organization”… Since the early 1970s, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Frente Polisario) has led a fight initially for independence from Spain and subsequently for freedom from Morocco’s efforts to forcibly annex the territory.  The Polisario is a moderate secular movement whose leadership is democratically elected by refugees…

This Isn’t Just Trump’s War on Iran. Both Parties Paved the Way for Disaster

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Truthout, April 17, 2026: Democrats share responsibility with the GOP for creating the climate that made such a war possible. Unlike the invasion of Iraq, which received the support of a sizable minority of congressional Democrats, Donald Trump’s war on Iran has received near-universal criticism. Still, the party has focused primarily on process-style critiques — such as the legality of declaring the war under the Constitution and the war’s economic impact — rather than the humanitarian consequences and flagrant violations of international law.

Operation Epstein Fury Part 8. Is It Finally Over?

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Zunes quoted in Wyoming Star, April 10, 2026, by Joe Yans:
“Despite US and Israeli claims to the contrary, Pakistani mediators and others have confirmed that the agreement for a two-week halt to the fighting and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz was contingent on a ceasefire in Lebanon. European leaders and other US allies have underscored the importance of the ceasefire applying to Lebanon as well. Israel’s US-backed air strikes have gone well beyond Hezbollah military targets to include heavy bombing of crowded urban neighborhoods.”

Iran: America’s War of Choice is Israel’s War of Necessity

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Counterpunch, March 10, 2026, by Daniel Falcone (quotes Zunes):
Stephen Zunes remarked just after the attack, “An Omani mediator said a nuclear agreement with Iran was within reach [and] in response, the United States and Israel started bombing… schools, hospitals, city parks, and cultural sites are being targeted in the United States and Israeli bombing of Tehran… This is not a preemptive war. A preemptive war is in response to an imminent attack. This is a war of aggression. A flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter.” Alarmingly, Trump stated over a month before the invasion that “I don’t need international law,” as he currently creates new norms. Zunes previously stated, “this war isn’t about nonproliferation, it’s about inflicting as much damage as possible on a country that isn’t willing to accept U.S. hegemony in the region.”

The fallout of Trump’s Iran strike

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The Daily Star, Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 22, 2025, [source]
[Quoting Stephen Zunes] According to Stephen Zunes, director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco, Iran, too, “has a number of options” at its disposal. “They can attack US forces directly. There are up to 40,000 Americans within range, not just of Iranian missiles but of drones and other weaponry. The fleet in the Persian Gulf, just off the Iranian coast, is also vulnerable to Iranian attacks, and that could impact global shipping, oil prices, and indeed the entire global economy.” The proxy militias in Iraq could also “target American bases there.” And so, there are “a number of ways that American forces could be vulnerable,” and it would be surprising “if the Iranians don’t target at least some of these.” [source]

US Policy Toward Israel/Palestine Under Trump

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Americans for Middle East Understanding, April 27, 2025
The Trump administration will certainly take a more hardline policy in support of Israel’s right-wing leadership and in opposition to Palestinian rights. Given President Biden’s strident support for Netanyahu’s wars on Palestinian and Lebanese populations, which had already isolated the United States in the international community, the shift in policy will probably be less dramatic than on practically any other major political issue.