Over the last few months Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have stepped up efforts to enhance cooperation with Iraq, which still relies heavily on neighbouring Iran in energy and other economic domains.
The two Sunni (...)
If the Iraqi government and the United Nations are to be believed, "a national dialogue" among political forces to be held before the October parliamentary elections might help rebuild a stable and peaceful Iraq.
Last month incumbent Prime Minister (...)
Two months into his presidency Joe Biden faces mounting criticism for his Middle East policy. Strategic experts across the region feel it lacks focus, with neither a clear set of objectives nor sufficient engagement with regional power houses.
Even (...)
Over the last two weeks Iraq's lawmakers have struggled to pass legislation that would create a Supreme Federal Court (SFC) to serve as the country's primary constitutional platform, and is also required for endorsing the results of a crucial early (...)
Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi is taking credit for bringing Pope Francis to his beleaguered nation this week in the first-ever papal trip to Iraq, taking a moment to bask in warm glow of an event trumpeted by the Iraqi media as a historic (...)
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Al-Ahram Weekly, which was established amidst Desert Storm, the US-led war to expel Iraq from Kuwait in 1991, one of the most momentous events in the 20th-century Middle East. The paper aimed at providing (...)
If there is one country in the Middle East where one should not be surprised to see political violence resulting in brutal murders, it is Lebanon.
With presidents, prime ministers, religious leaders, key political leaders and journalists all having (...)
When twin suicide bombs rocked a busy market in central Baghdad on 21 January, killing at least 32 people and injuring 110 others, many Iraqis went on TV talk shows or online chats to blame the ruling Iraqi groups for the horrific attacks. It was a (...)
When Mustafa Al-Kadhimi assumed office as Iraq's prime minister in May this year, he made a string of reform promises, many of which made headlines and went from weeding out corruption to improving public services and restoring the nation's battered (...)
Next month will mark a decade since the 2011 uprisings that rocked several Arab countries and lead to the collapse of four regimes. But the fallout from the chaos they gave rise to and that rippled through the region has lasted for years after the (...)
The killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh near Tehran last month has raised the spectre of a major conflict in the Middle East and possibly of a war between the Islamic Republic and Israel, which has been blamed for the (...)
With elections in Iraq only months away, the country's Shia political factions, which have been in control of the government for nearly 18 years, are making preparations for their campaigns, fuelling speculation that the voting will be hotly (...)
The Middle East is not the main theme of former US president Barack Obama's new autobiography by any means, but in his book A Promised Land he nevertheless provides vivid details about the Arab Spring, one of major challenges of his first term in (...)
Naseera Al-Qaisi became a widow in 1985. Her husband, Falih Hassan, was shot to death by Al-Ansar, or the Partisans, members of the Iraqi Communist Party who were fighting the regime of former dictator Saddam Hussein from their mountainous hideouts (...)
French President Emmanuel Macron believes that the secular French Republic is under attack by “Islamism” and that the problem can be solved by stepping up a counterattack. He should think again: extremism has proved to be a complex global threat (...)
It began with so much hope. On 25 October last year, tens of thousands of Iraqis took to the streets to push for the political and economic reforms that are badly needed to fix the country's broken governing system.
The uprising had started three (...)
The largely Shia-dominated Azerbaijan is backed by Turkey in its war with Armenia. The Shia Islamic Republic of Iran favours Armenia and Sunni Arab nations seem to tilt towards the mostly Christian nation in the current conflict in the Caucasus.
On (...)
When Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi came to power in May, he made broad promises to reform his country's dysfunctional political system and to improve the government's performance so it could respond to the needs of its citizens.
The (...)
It all started with the temporary marriage between the United States and Islamist extremists to fight the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan some 40 years ago, but jihadism ended with devastating consequences for the world as a whole.
As the US (...)
“The parliamentary elections to be held next year are of paramount importance, and all necessary preparations should be made in order to give their results a high degree of credibility,” said Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, the highest-ranking Shia (...)
For over 18 years, Arab nations have repeated their proposal to end decades of conflict at the heart of Middle East problems, advocating peace with Israel hinged upon its withdrawal to pre-1967 borders.
Similar terms in the “Arab Peace Initiative” (...)
The relationship between France and the Middle East has been multifaceted, including not only deeper historical ties but also geopolitical, economic and cultural ones.
Yet, the centuries-old relationship between the former European colonial power (...)
When thousands of Iraqi demonstrators poured into the streets of cities across the country last year, they were largely protesting against unbridled corruption, government inefficiency, unemployment and the lack of basic services.
But soon the (...)
Like every country or region across the world, the Arab nations are likely watching the contentious presidential campaign unfolding in the US and anxiously wondering what the outcome could mean for them.
US policy in the Middle East, one of the (...)
Rarely in times of peace has a Middle Eastern country expanded its military, political, economic and cultural power beyond its borders as far away and at such a rate as Turkey has in recent years.
Three decades ago Turkey's soft power remained (...)
