This Bruce Ridel really gives a new meaning to the term a "Middle East expert"

"The main purpose of Mullah Mansour’s trips to Iran was tactical coordination, according to Bruce Riedel, a former C.I.A. analyst and fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington."  Every time I read his name I remember that in an interview with Middle East Quarterly back in the 1990s, he asserted that Arabs are not really bothered with US sanctions on Iraq.