Format: 270 x 200 mm
Page: 40
Language: English
Publisher: MEI Publications Ltd, Nicosia
Year: 2009
ISSN: 0047-7249
Issues: 25 Issues/12 Months
Obama's Iran dilemma
Viewpoint
From Roger Hardy
Of all the issues waiting to mug Barack Obama when he entered the White House, Iran has proved the most treacherous. There was a widely shared expectation that his offer of a dialogue with Tehran would throw the ayatollahs onto the defensive. If..
News Analysis
Sudan
Stepping into the unknown
From Julie Flint in London
The opening of the campaign for Sudan’s first democratic elections in 24 years, a step into the unknown as a new opposition alliance coalesces against President Omar al-Bashir’s National Congress Party (NCP), has, in a stark reminder of the...
Surprises in store?
From Alex de Waal in Khartoum
Sudan faces an unexpectedly competitive election, with no certain outcome. Two huge rallies on 14 and 15 February marked the first days of official campaigning. The president inaugurated his re-election bid at the Hilal football stadium, his...
Iran
Keeping control
From Paul Sampson in London
It came as a blessed relief to Iran’s leadership that the celebrations held across the country on 11 February to mark the 31st anniversary of the 1979 revolution did not become another battleground between riot police and anti-government...
Containing Iran
From Graham Usher in New York
For eight months the Iranian regime has met domestic challenges to its rule with repression. It is now meeting the external threat posed by another round of United Nations Security Council sanctions and an American-orchestrated regional encirclement...
Iraq
Rocky election road
From Jim Muir in Beirut
The general election campaign finally lurched out of the terminal on 12 February, delayed (as things always seem to be in Iraq), and looking more like a battered and rickety old jalopy than the sleek limousine the Americans would doubtless have...
Yemen
Making the peace stick
From Philip McCrum in Bath
At midnight on 11 February, a ceasefire came into effect between Houthi rebels and government forces, supposedly bringing an end to the sporadic six-year conflict in northern Yemen. While a ceasefire does not necessarily entail a comprehensive peace...
Turkey
Taking a step back
From Nicole Pope in Istanbul
Dozens of Kurdish demonstrators were arrested across Turkey on 15 February as they gathered to mark the 11th anniversary of the capture in Kenya of Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan. The wave of detentions is the latest sign...
Demoralised all round
From Nicole Pope in Istanbul
Prosecutors have begun an official inquiry into an alleged conspiracy against the government, codenamed Sledgehammer, revealed recently by the daily Taraf (MEI 2/7). At the same time, Turkey’s military is becoming increasingly exasperated by...
Lebanon
Out of steam
From Nicholas Blanford in Beirut
When hundreds of thousands of Lebanese rallied on the streets of Beirut five years ago to protest against the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri and demand an end to Syrian domination, Lebanon’s ‘independence intifada’ was hailed as a rare...
Syria
Sound and fury
From Omayma Abdel-Latif in Beirut
Syrian officials are known to weigh their words carefully, particularly on matters related to foreign policy issues. Engaging in verbal spats is not their style of conducting diplomacy. So, when Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem broke this...
INSIDE ISRAEL with Haim Baram
Keeping out the Arab vote
From Haim Baram
When anti-democratic currents lurk behind a façade of procedure and purported legality, they tend to keep quiet as long as their interests are not actively threatened. This explains the relatively low level of violence within Israeli political...
Israel
Votes for "weaklings"
From Peretz Kidron in West Jerusalem
A proposal to extend voting rights to Israelis resident abroad has been arousing passionate debate, with politicians and ordinary citizens hastening to line up on opposing sides. Not surprisingly, in view of its initiation by Prime Minister Benyamin...
Highly questionable business
From Ed Blanche in Beirut
Four executives of Israeli arms companies were arrested in Las Vegas earlier this year, accused of trying to bribe a man they thought was an African defence minister to obtain a $15 million arms contract. They were among 22 people who were indicted...
'Forwards' in retreat
From Peretz Kidron in West Jerusalem
In the 2009 Israeli elections, the Kadima (Forwards) Party under Tzipi Livni emerged with the largest number of votes. Personally attractive, relatively new on the political scene, and unencumbered by the cloud of venality surrounding other...
PASSIONATE DETACHMENT: Ian Williams' America
'Straight journalism'
From Ian Williams in New York
Following a back injury, I write this from a horizontal position. There is only one other group of professionals that can earn a living lying flat on its back, and, frankly, I often suspect the other has more honesty and integrity. Which leads in...
Palestine
AbuZayd: “Open Gaza’s borders”
From Ian Williams in New York
At the end of January, Karen AbuZayd stepped down as head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), to be replaced by her Italian deputy, Filippo Grandi. During one term as deputy and two as commissioner-general, AbuZayd won the respect...
Down from the tree
From Graham Usher in New York
Iran is not the only policy issue where Barack Obama is reverting to a George W Bush prototype. Last month, his Special Middle East Envoy, George Mitchell, told the West Bank Palestinian Authority that it must resume unconditional talks with...
Saudi Arabia
The handshake
From Sana Abdallah in Amman
Another handshake involving Arabs and Israelis has been caught on camera, this time between Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki al-Faisal and Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. The incident at the Munich Security Conference on 6 February...
Egypt
A signal to the Brothers
From Issandr el Amrani in Cairo
When Muhammad Badie, the Egyptian Muslim Brothers’ new General Guide, was elected in January, it appeared the group would commit to a lower profile than it did under his predecessor, Mahdi Akef. Akef, who rose to the position in 2004 as the...
Egypt's antiquities: heritage or business?
From Issandr el Amrani in Cairo
For a country with some 6,000 years of history, Egypt has an extremely narrow definition of what constitutes an antique object: it need only be over 100 years old to benefit from protection under the law. This means it must be registered with the...
Morocco
Palace loses patience
From Issandr el Amrani in Cairo
On 27 January, as the staff of Le Journal Hebdomadaire were putting the finishing touches to a new issue, bailiffs entered the premises in Casablanca and announced that they were seizing the magazine’s property. The company that owns the magazine...
Western Sahara
Western Sahara: standing still
From Anton Wahlberg in New York
For two days in the approach to Valentine’s Day, Moroccan and Polisario representatives met in suburban New York for their second round of direct talks. But there was no seasonal love and kisses at the event, chaperoned by former American diplomat...
Features
Musical chairs and other diplomatic games
From Rime Allaf in London
It is not unusual for the Middle East to find itself submerged with rumours of war, even while the mechanics of a peace process continue to grind, at least for the sake of appearances. One year after the Israeli assault on Gaza (and no closer to...
The ICC and Darfur's tangled web
From Julie Flint
When the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued summonses for three Darfur rebels in connection with the 2007 killing of 12 African Union (AU) peacekeepers, victims of the war questioned why the ICC was raising this case when it had yet to arrest...
Water crises: lessons of history
From James Dorsey
Arabs, living in a world of authoritarian states, strife and lack of development, nostalgically recall Islam’s early days when an Islamic empire stretched from Spain to Central Asia and led the world in science and the arts. Today, many ask...
Reviews
Mixed matches
From Rosemary Sayigh
Mariages et identité nationale au Liban: les relations Libano-Palestiniennes dans le Liban de Taëf (1989-2005) Daniel Meier Geneva, IHEID-Karthala, 2008, €23 ISBN: 9782811101596 Daniel Meier does not set out to write a history of the...
Light years apart
From Ian Williams
It’s Easier to Reach Heaven than the End of the Street: A Jerusalem Memoir, Emma Williams Olive Branch Press, an imprint of Interlink Publishing Group, Inc. ISBN: 9781566567893, $16 Newly updated for the American edition, Emma...
Letter From
Letter from Khartoum
From Kerry Abbott
The balmy winter night was disturbed by a loud male voice rising above the din of traffic, followed by echoes from a crowd. The source did not seem to be the mosque nearby. I tracked the sound outside and across a major thoroughfare in the centre of...
