Unfortunately, Judge Amir Jawdat Naeib was assassinated in Baghdad on his way to work today. According to the linked BBC article, assassinations have gone down since the ‘surge’, but this is another example of how far Iraq is from true stability. Despite this, the Coalition has announced that over 60 militants have been killed in […]
The President is concluding the Israel/Palestinian portion of his Middle East trip, before moving on the Gulf to deal with Iran. Bush feels confident that there will be a Palestinian state and a peace treaty before he leaves office in slightly more than a year, saying “'there's going to be a signed peace treaty by […]
The Institute of War and Peace Reporting has a new series called Iraqi Women's Voices. The first one, also printed in the Middle East Times, is called “Life After the Islamic State,” about a woman whose Baghdad neighborhood, once secular and free of the Sunni-Shi’ite divide, fell under the sway of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. My […]
An editorial in today's Middle East Times nails it: And if indeed the president's concern is the Arab-Israeli dispute, then why the stops in four Gulf countries? Why the visits to Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia? It is interesting to note that those four countries share the same concerns over Iran's rising influence […]
Interested in knowing why Lebanon frequently has the difficulties it does? Pay attention to the last sentence excerpted here. From The Daily Star Iranian official to meet Assad to discuss Lebanon Saturday, January 05, 2008 ROME: Ali Larijani, member of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council and adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will visit Damascus […]
Clearly, not everything in the Middle East centers around terrorism, despite the impression one might get from the news or even at times this blog. However, it obviously is a very real phenomenon, and understanding it is key. In light of that, I’m linking today to a fairly new publication called Perspectives on Terrorism, the […]
Marc Lynch has an article in the Christian Science Monitor on US policy toward Iran vis a vis the Gulf States. The thesis is essentially that the Gulf States have shifted their policy toward Iran to one of pragmatic accomadation (though not friendship). Lynch writes: The states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are accommodating […]
The Yemen Times has a recent profile on Sheik al-Ahmar's son, a very relevant man following the recent death of his father, the second-most powerful person in Yemen. The author, Abdullah al-Faqeh, is a professor of politics at Sana’a University and very clearly a fan of young Hamid. In the last post on the al-Ahmar […]
The Gulf Research Center has published a series of articles Nuclearization of the Gulf, which can be downloaded for free as a .pdf file from their main page, or you can order a hard copy if you want something impressive on your bookshelf. Interesting and comprehensive site in and of itself, and the paper looks very […]
(Apologies for the delay in posting- have been out of town) A leader dies in a Muslim country, one in which chaos always seems a possible destiny, in a time of frail uncertainty, leaving the country in a new and vertiginous and dangerous world. This is case in Pakistan, with the unsolved murder of Benazir […]
An Oliver Guitta article in the Middle East Times from yesterday analyzes the ascent of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, particularly Algeria (Here is an earlier post about the Dec 11th Algiers bombings). Basically, the thrust of the article is that al-Qaeda is consolidating its influence in the region, and that “One of its primary goals is to […]
Interesting story on grafitti art on NPR this morning. In Bethlehem, Israel's security wall is being tagged by both international and local artists, in what can be seen as a display of defiance or, alternately, just an outlet for frustrated young people. You can listen to and read the story A British grafitti artist (I […]
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