Dennis Ross, a former special assistant to President Barack Obama, is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute.
There are few people in Washington who know the complex diplomatic shoals of the Middle East as well as Ambassador Dennis Ross. Over the course of three administrations -- both Republican and Democrat -- he has witnessed multiple efforts to create a lasting peace between Israel and Palestine, crafted a strategic policy of sanctions on and containment of Iran, and most recently held a portfolio at the National Security Council that ranged from the Mediterranean to the Bay of Bengal.
In a wide-ranging interview with Foreign Policy following his December departure from Barack Obama's administration, he claimed that the sanctions on Iran are working, that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad can't hold on indefinitely, and that Israel and Palestine are perhaps further from peace than at any time in recent memory.
