Today, the Washington Post announced that the US government is spying on Iraqi President Nouri Kamal al Maliki. This revelation comes from Bob Woodward's forthcoming (Monday) book The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008. Phew. That is … surprising. The Post's early redux of Woodward's book also includes a bit of analysis related […]
An interview that you may find interesting. There is a story behind the interview. Maybe someday I will share it. Walid Jumblatt: It is important to have President Michel Sulayman convene the national dialog session to discuss the issue of the arms of Hizballah. It will take a long time to settle it, as it […]
Gian P. Gentile has a piece in the Christian Science Monitor this week arguing that the Russia/Georgia standoff of August 08 indicates the importance of maintaining a military with strong conventional warfare capabilities. A conventionally trained military can quickly adapt to a counterinsurgency environment, he says, but deemphasizing conventional preparations in favor of a focus […]
At a press conference in Damascus following a quadripartite meeting that joined Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy alongside Assad, the Syrian president commended the Doha Agreement, which he said had erased the specter of civil war in Lebanon. "Yet the situation in […]
Jeffrey Azarva at the American Enterprise Institute argues today that as Egyptian President Husni Mubarak continues to block democratic reform a new U.S. administration would do well to “send Mubarak and the one-in-three Arabs he rules the message that U.S. aid cannot be taken for granted.” Since the early 1980s the United States has provided […]
Raghida Dergham writes for al Hayat on the American presidential candidates and foreign policy from an Arab perspective. Quick excerpt: Rarely do the Democrats remember that global protests to American policies are not solely ascribed to the war in Iraq. They are equally ignited by the policies adopted by Democratic presidents in the past […]
Hady Amr, scholar at Brookings in Qatar, takes note in the Daily Star of the fact that, though Arabs make up 5% of the world's population, they took less than 1% of Olympic medals. (Of 958 awarded, only 9 went to citizens of Arab countries). In his words: … Something is clearly wrong when countries […]
… with, of course, emphasis on Iraq and energy. Richard Holbrooke, Ambassador to the UN under Clinton and an attractive candidate for Secretary of State under a Democratic administration (and a whole host of other things – see Wikipedia) has a piece in the September/October Foreign Affairs on the foreign policy challenges that either McCain […]
Today I went to Sassine in Ashrafieh and after the meeting, I thought of wandering the streets close to the ABC Mall. The weather is not as hot as before, though humid [and yes I still hate it] and anyway I needed some time off from work…. I absolutely loved the experience and Ashrafieh is […]
The Yemen Times has two articles on the role of journalists in Yemeni society, both of which outline the obstacles journalists face (namely low pay and legal restrictions). These challenges are interesting, and common to many of the Arab countries where ‘official media sources’ dominate the news scene. The more curious assertion, though, is that […]
Despite the pledge made by Rice, Abbas and Olmert not to release any commentary until an agreement was reached, it appears that the terms Israel offered have been leaked. Moreover, Abbas has rejected them. AP coverage here.
Today is the first day of Ramadan; the Jordan Times has an article detailing the different start dates of the holy month in different Islamic countries. It also alludes the ways in which high food prices impact purchasing patterns this month; people simply are not able to buy as much. Students of Arabic can refer […]
The GCC countries, wealthy but water-poor, need to start looking at the different avenues available for feeding their populations, says a report by the Gulf Research Center. (The National summarized the report's findings here). To that end they are looking into the production capabilities of countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia, including Sudan, South […]
Though Egypt and Israel signed a lasting peace treaty thirty years ago the two countries have yet to normalize their relations by exhibiting trust and friendship between governments. Israeli officials interested in enhancing their legitimacy in the Middle East are typically more concerned over this than their Egyptian counterparts. At Israel's urging American officials often […]
Yesterday, AMAL celebrated Musa Sadr in Nabatyeh. I attended the event, and as soon as I have some free time, I will tell you more about it. It was an interesting first hand experience. For the rest of the world, the disappearance of the imam Moussa al-Sadr is probably at most a footnote in the […]