The defeat of U.S. President Barack Obama by Israel's Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu on the question of West Bank settlements has delivered a shock to the international system.
Netanyahu was able to brush aside Obama's repeated requests to (...)
Al-Qaida's announcement this week of the execution of a sick, 78-year old Frenchman, Michel Germaneau, somewhere in the vast arid wastes of the Sahara, is seen in Paris as a declaration of war. ‘This barbaric act will not go unpunished,' a (...)
Two senior officials of the Obama administration are doing their utmost to ensure that Israel is fully-protected against any potential threat from its regional enemies and that the U.S.-Israeli alliance remains as unshakable as ever.
They are (...)
The United States is still far from having conducted a serious accounting of its catastrophic adventure in Iraq. No doubt the wounds, political as well as physical, are still too raw. Nevertheless, some sort of a balance-sheet must one day be drawn (...)
Twenty-five years ago, in the spring of 1985, I was invited by Morocco to view a vast project in the Western Sahara – sand fortifications, built by the Moroccan armed forces, stretching as far as the eye could see to keep out the Polisario, an (...)
With growing insistence, some influential Israelis are beginning to press the Netanyahu government to seek to make peace with Syria – even if the price-tag is the return of the entire Golan to Syrian sovereignty.
The latest example of this (...)
A formidable coalition against Israel is taking shape in the Greater Middle East. At its core are Turkey, Iran and Syria, three countries harbouring bitter grievances against the Jewish state. They are determined to hold in check Israel's military (...)
Israel's deadly commando assault last Monday on the Free Gaza flotilla has been variously denounced around the world as state terrorism, piracy, a war crime, and as the latest example of Israel's arrogant contempt for international law and its (...)
All the indications suggest that Egypt is heading for a fateful decision. President Husni Mubarak, 82, has ruled for close to three decades, ever since his predecessor Anwar al-Sadat was assassinated by a Muslim extremist in 1981. But his health is (...)
The deal struck in Tehran on Monday, May 17, could largely defuse the international crisis over Iran's nuclear activities -- if it is accepted by the international community. It must be counted a considerable contribution to the peace of the region (...)
Not since the Second World War has the United Kingdom found itself wrestling with such a heavy load of intractable problems – political, constitutional, economic, military and geostrategic.
The inconclusive general election of 6 May – in which no (...)
George Mitchell, President Barack Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, deserves a modest round of applause. His patient coaxing of Israelis and Palestinians over the past fifteen months is about to bear fruit: indirect talks between the parties (...)
George Mitchell, President Barack Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, deserves a modest round of applause. His patient coaxing of Israelis and Palestinians over the past fifteen months is about to bear fruit: indirect talks between the parties (...)
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) –the world's major arms control agreement, now 40 years old and signed by 189 states – is in deep crisis. Can it be rescued and, indeed, can it be reinforced to meet the challenges to international security (...)
Barely a week goes by without news of some act of violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. By any definition, what settlers and other religious activists do to Palestinians is terrorism. But it goes (...)
U.S. President Barack Obama has scored some notable successes -- at home, with healthcare reform; abroad, with a nuclear arms control treaty which will reduce U.S. and Russian arsenals by 30 per cent. This is a small but significant step towards his (...)
General Stanley McChrystal's campaign to boot the Taliban out of southern Afghanistan is not going well. Marred by civilian casualties and stubborn Taliban resistance, his assault on the small town of Marjah has been slowed to a snail's pace. (...)
Abu Mazen, president of the Palestinian Authority, is in deep trouble. He is in search of a strategy. After visits to Germany, Britain and Russia in recent months, and consultations with Arab leaders, he is coming to Paris on 21-22 February in what (...)
Iran's announcement that it is to start enriching uranium to close to 20 per cent, under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to produce radioisotopes for its medical reactor in Tehran has triggered a fresh outbreak of (...)
In an audiotape broadcast on Al-Jazeera television on 24 January, Al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden warned the United States that ‘our attacks against you will continue so long as you maintain your support for Israel.' ‘It is not fair,' he said, (...)
Israel's 10-month partial freeze of new settlement building on occupied Palestinian territory, as announced by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu on 25 November, has been rejected by the Palestinians as a basis for peace negotiations. They want a (...)
In launching his ‘Democratic Opening' towards Turkey's 15 million Kurds earlier this month, Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan has embarked on possibly the most perilous phase of his political career.
His Kurdish initiative could lose him (...)
A British journalist, Brian Whitaker, has written a provocative and disturbing book about the Middle East. His title is the one I have put at the head of this article. His book is not kind to the Arabs, since it exposes the profound contradictions (...)
All the indications from Washington suggest that President Barack Obama's long-awaited strategy for Afghanistan will be a compromise between the views of his principal advisers. But, as compromises please no one and are rarely effective, more (...)
Rarely in modern times has the planet been as ungovernable as it is today. Global problems assail us on all sides, but no global solutions are forthcoming.
Instead, what do we see? Wars, massacres, unprecedented financial crises, unresolved (...)