Category: Middle East

Barry Rubin If you launch a West Bank operation to defeat a terrorist war (against international complaints); build a security fence (despite international criticism); and fight a defensive action in...

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has told his Israeli counterpart construction work on land taken from Palestinians in 1967 must stop if there is to be peace.   Speaking at a press...

Ahmed El Amraoui   Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian president and PLO leader, died on November 11, 2004 but his supporters and opponents continue to reflect - and often debate -...

Palestinian officials are preparing to ask the United Nations to endorse their quest for an independent state after years of failed peace talks, Palestinian authorities have said.   Saeb Erekat,...

Meredith Buel From the beginning of his administration, U.S. President Barack Obama said resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be a top foreign policy priority. After nearly 10 months of diplomacy,...

Prof. Scott Lucas   Again, with apologies in advance, I am reacting to an article in a US newspaper about the Green movement in Iran.   I do not want...

Prof. Scott Lucas   One of the immediate headline issues in yesterday’s bombings in Iran, which killed at least 42 people including six senior Revolutionary Guard commanders, was US involvement....

Prof. Scott Lucas   The media will be buzzing for the rest of the day about an American “scrapping” of its plans to base missile defense in sites in Poland...

Ilan Berman After months of dithering and delay, the Iranian government appears to have grudgingly accepted the U.S. president's diplomatic overtures. Just shy of the deadline for dialogue set by...

Shlomo Ben-Ami   No matter how important rising oil powers outside the Middle East are becoming, the region will continue to be the world’s main source of energy for years...

Prof. Scott Lucas   Today, on Iran’s “weekend”, should be a political catch-your-breath day after the culmination of Parliament’s approval of 18 of 21 proposed Ministers for the Ahmadinejad Cabinet....

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and U.S. President Barack Obama expressed optimism about attaining Middle East peace after their White House Meeting on Tuesday. But journalists and regional analysts are far...

Iraq’s Arab-led central government and Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq are talking, but they are still far from agreement on issues of land and oil that threaten the country’s stability....

Prof. Scott Lucas   From Press TV, “Ahmadinejad aide says jail improves health condition”: Amid concerns over health conditions and treatment of Iran’s post-vote detainees, an aide to the Iranian...

Prof. Scott Lucas The immediate significance of Mehdi Karroubi’s letter, as it passed from Karroubi to Secretary of Parliament Ali Larijani and then, via Hashemi Rafsanjani, to the head of...