AGSIW Senior Resident Scholar Hussein Ibish joined the Los Angeles NPR affiliate KPCC on AirTalk for a discussion on the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and President Barack Obama’s decision to deploy 450 additional U.S. military advisors to Iraq. AirTalk host Patt Morrison asked how U.S. presidential candidates are approaching U.S. involvement in Iraq. Ibish noted a range of Republican candidates are attacking the Obama administration from a hawkish perspective, saying it is not aggressive enough in the battle against ISIL. At the same time, he noted, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton is perhaps slightly more hawkish than the president, particularly on Syria.

Ahead of U.N.-brokered peace talks on Yemen, AGSIW Non-Resident Fellow Sigurd Neubauer spoke with the Middle East Eye about U.S. talks with Houthi leaders in Oman at the end of May. He said, “Faced with an expansion of AQAP, a growing humanitarian toll and the limited successes of Saudi’s anti-Houthi air campaign, the US has started talking to the Houthis and is pushing more heavily for a negotiated peace, while remaining committed to Saudi security.”

Neubauer additionally spoke with Oman’s state television, along with Ambassador Edward W. Gnehm, Jr., member of the AGSIW board of directors, at a cultural event at the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center