Tom Fletcher, Britain's ambassador to Lebanon, used to follow the news about the Middle East from the British Embassy in France. Fletcher was then appointed as an advisor to former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street, and then (...)
French President Francois Hollande reassured Israeli leaders during his visit to their country that France will not let Iran develop nuclear weapons and that French and European sanctions will remain in place as long as Iran gives no guarantees (...)
In the summer of 1988, Jamil Mrowa, the son of Al-Hayat founder Kamel Mrowa, came to tell me that he was re-launching Al-Hayat. Jamil is a colleague and an old family friend. We were at the French School together in Beirut with his big sister Hayat (...)
The arrogance of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in his speeches grows every time he addresses his public. On Monday, Nasrallah said he believed that the fighting by his forces against the Syrian people represented a winning effort by a (...)
The meeting held in London on Tuesday by the Friends of Syria group that includes 11 countries, was perceived by influential Arab and non-Arab ministers who participated in it as being the best since the establishment of this so-called core group. (...)
The price of a barrel of oil in the United States dropped to below $100 for the first time since July, after an agreement between President Barack Obama and Congress to end the government shutdown. It also took place after markets determined that (...)
France, which imports all of its natural gas and oil, and which is experiencing an economic crisis with a high unemployment rate, has banned the production of shale oil and gas. This ban was affirmed by the country's Constitutional Court. It is a (...)
The spring of 2014 will see presidential elections that involve problems and complications in the Arab world, in Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, and Algeria. As long as the war rages in Syria with Bashar Assad as president, in practical terms no presidential (...)
Tuesday's meeting between Francois Hollande and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rohani, at the United Nations, at Iran's request, will not solve Tehran's problem with the west and the world in the short term, or even in the middle term, as long as (...)
The Russian-American agreement that took place in Geneva proved that the Russians and the Syrian regime acknowledged that on 21 August, Bashar al-Assad and his gang used chemical weapons against his people. This is why the Russian foreign minister, (...)
The Syrian uprising has showed the luck of Bashar Assad with his allies Russia and Iran, and also his enemies, namely public opinion in democratic countries and a weak American president. The Russian proposal to deal with Syria's chemical weapons, (...)
President Bashar Assad's interview with Le Figaro once again confirms his denial of reality. He criticizes France and says that it has lost its independence and is a follower of US policy, while his regime cannot survive without its dependence on (...)
"We must secure victory." "We have the means to defend ourselves." We heard these words from Syria's brilliant foreign minister this week on Tuesday, when he responded to the possibility of confronting the coming military strike against Syria. What (...)
Libya's oil minister, Abdel-Bari al-Arusi, announced that his country had lost $1.6 billion in oil revenues since 25 July because of the closure of key oil powers as a result of strikes. He warned that if the situation continues in this way, Libya (...)
Algeria's judiciary has ordered the arrest of the former minister of energy, Chakib Khalil, his two sons and his wife, along with the brother of the former foreign minister, Farid Bedjaoui, over a bribery and corruption case linked to Algeria's (...)
In Tuesday's edition of Le Monde, the famous political cartoonist Plantu summed up the moderation of Hasan Rohani, the new Iranian president, by drawing Bashar Assad holding an axe and killing his people. In the drawing, Rohani tells Bashar, (...)
There has been a lot of talk recently about the United States reducing its reliance on oil from the Middle East, and particularly Saudi Arabia, because America has rapidly developed natural gas and shale oil, which has produced a revolution in the (...)
Lebanon's Parliament recently endorsed a draft law to protect women and other family members from violence. This draft legislation should be improved, especially in terms of becoming a law in force, and it remains a very small step forward for (...)
The confusion by the west and the international community over what is happening in Egypt, from the deposing of the elected president, Mohamed Morsi, recalls the confusion that prevailed in the west when the Algerian Army halted parliamentary (...)
The criminal explosion that took place on Tuesday in the southern suburbs of Beirut requires urgent national vigilance by all political groups in the country, to save it from the repercussions of the disastrous situation in Syria and the transfer of (...)
During the visit to Doha by Francois Hollande last weekend, the French president had the opportunity to see Qatar's industrial and building development. He also had the opportunity to hear from the Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, about his intention (...)
Russian president Vladimir Putin has had a firm and obstinate stance vis-à-vis the regime of Bashar Assad, while President Barack Obama was diplomatic during their second meeting in Northern Ireland, on the sidelines of the G8 Summit. This (...)
The victory by one of the conservative candidates as Iran's president – Ali Akbar Velayati, the adviser to the Supreme Leader on international affairs, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf or Saeed Jalili, the secretary of the Higher National (...)
The United States was late in intervening to end the Syrian crisis, as Secretary of State John Kerry said this week. This tardiness reflects the reality of the situation and the weakness of President Barack Obama's foreign policy, which has focused (...)
OPEC oil ministers will hold a meeting in Vienna on Friday with the head of the organization, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Hani Hussein, who has resigned. In less than three years, OPEC has seen five or six Kuwaiti oil ministers, whose names are difficult (...)