Nearly five months after national elections were held, Iraq is still without a government. Now, they may be without a football team.
Nearly five months after national elections were held, Iraq is still without a government. Now, they may be without a football team.
When I was a young, bubbly lad my mom used to do something for me on my birthday every year. I was an only child, and she enjoyed indulging me I think. She would give me one wish. Her only rule was that my wish had to reasonable, something within the realm of possibility. Sometimes […]
Increasing ties between Syria and Turkey have been making headlines for sometime now, so that means it’s time to discuss the issue here. The process of rehabilitating relations has been ongoing for over a decade now, and over the past year the pace of rapprochement has quickened significantly. This powerful new friendship is multifaceted, with ties […]
The Muslim brotherhood in Egypt is mobilizing its grassroots campaigners to garner support for the upcoming legislative elections to be held in October. This would be the first election after Mohammed Al Baradei return to Egypt and his calls for political reform. And after President Hosni’s Mubarack clear signs of an ailing health. The Group […]
Yours truly has just returned from a rather exceptional concert here in Damascus. The Gorillaz played the Damascus citadel tonight, adjacent to famous Souk al-Hamediyeh, and put on a GREAT show. The band put on a memorable performance which featured soul legend Bobby Womack, two thirds of the landmark Hip Hop collective De La Soul, […]
In the past week the Syrian Government has banned the Niqab, or full face veil, from school campuses. While no formal announcement has been made, and enforcement has been spotty, word spread through Damascus as university employees wearing the full face veil were transferred out of the classroom. The ban would cover, or uncover in […]
Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah announced in a press conference Thursday that he expects Hizballah members to be charged in the investigation into the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, and that as a result, Lebanon was now entering a “very serious phase”. Depending on who is charged within the group, the indictments could be extremely damaging […]
WOW! That was all I could say when I heard the news that Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah had announced that members of Hezbollah would be indicted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). This is HUGE news and it has the potential to change the regional status quo in several major ways. The most important implication […]
Hi. My name is Walter Raubeson and I want you to know more about Syria. I don’t think anyone is really covering the place very well at the moment so, hopefully, I’ll be helping you to understand the place just a little bit better. It’s certainly a complicated spot, full of subtlety and nuance, even […]
To preface today’s post, I’ll be honest…there haven’t been a lot of “glass-is-half-full” stories coming out of Iraq, recently. Between the political impasse, and the precipitous rise in sectarian violence, it seems like forever since there’s been a plain-old feel good story to put the focus back on the good and decent Iraqi people who […]
Middle East leaders held two meetings this week that exemplify recent foreign policy crises and personality clashes between Israel and its allies, along with internal disputes. Israel has been embroiled in, what is turning into, a years-long dispute with Turkey. Since the ascension of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the […]
Although there are hopeful signs that coalition talks between Iraq’s two major Shi’a blocs, the question of leadership remains squarely focused on Prime Minister’s Nouri al Maliki’s incumbency…
Turkish militant Muslim groups are using gorilla methods to intimidate their enemies, namely the U.S. and Israel and even the Armenian minority that has been long persecuted by the Turkish Government. Earlier this week Turkish Hackers stole addresses of 100,000 Israelis according to reports. The information stolen included email addresses of the victims as well […]
Last Thursday, Parliament introduced legislation that would significantly change the status of Lebanon’s Palestinian refugees. The proposal would have increased Palestinian access to employment, social security, and land ownership. A vote on the bill has been pushed back a month to allow time for negotiation and consensus building. It seems that the prospect of Palestinian […]
Thousands of people from all over Lebanon and the Middle East turned out today to mourn the passing of Grand Ayatollah Hussein Fadlallah, who died this past Sunday at the age of 75. The loss is big not only for Lebanon, but for the entire region, as Fadlallah was a highly revered and influential figure in […]