Iraqis are not naïve. Grim experience of their country’s rulers over the past 50 years leads many to suspect them of being self-serving, greedy, brutal, and incompetent. Ten years ago, some had hoped Iraqis might escape living in a permanent state of emergency as the US and Britain prepared to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Others were…
Robert Fisk: Now the Arab Spring becomes an Arab Summer Saturday, 16 July 2011 Rex Features Motorised French troops in Syria, near the border with Palestine, in June 1941. After the Second World War the French were persuaded to abandon their former mandated territories Syrians shot down in the streets across…
The Saudi threat is intended to present U.S. policymakers with a choice between U.S. values and U.S. interests. In his speech last week on the Middle East, President Barack Obama left little doubt that America stands with the people of the region in their demand for change. This puts the U.S. on a collision course…
Protesters destroy a car belonging to government supporters during a protest outside Sanaa University yesterday. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said protesters demanding an end to his 32-year rule could not achieve their goal through ‘anarchy and killing’, after nationwide unrest which has killed too many. – A possible US shift calling for…
TimesPeople Middle East A New Arab Generation Finds Its Voice Escalating violence has tempered the regional euphoria that followed the youth-led revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. And yet, young people will continue to play an important role in the Arab Spring. This month, The New York Times interviewed more than two dozen of them, from…
Protests are extremely rare in Saudi Arabia, but activists in Qatif recently took to the street
Hundreds of thousands protest across Arab world
The African Egypt versus the Arab Egypt