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The US risks becoming embroiled in yet another foreign war that it cannot win if it intervenes in the politically fragile Gulf state.
The Phoenicians were the greatest traders of the ancient world and the Lebanese are their descendants. In Lebanon, every situation — no matter how dire — is an opportunity for…
Brian Whitaker wonders whether media stars such as David Frost and Rageh Omaar will give the world the truth it seeks.
The Simpsons are a famously dysfunctional family from small-town America, but suddenly they have all learned Arabic and started talking like Egyptians, reports Brian Whitaker.
The threats directed against gay Arabs for besmirching the family’s name reflect an old-fashioned concept of ”honour” found in the more traditionalist parts of the Middle East.…
”A heavy metal door guards the entrance to the women’s section of the Nardeen lighting company in Riyadh. To gain admittance, you press the bell and wait. In my case it is a long…
Just a few weeks ago there was a feeling that Ariel Sharon, the master tactician, had finally broken the mould of Israeli politics. With his plans held hostage by the right wing…
Hosni Mubarak’s party machine put on an overwhelming display of organisational strength recently as Egyptians voted in the country’s first contested presidential election. The…
Amid chaotic scenes in a Cairo court, the main opposition candidate in Egypt’s forthcoming presi-dential election went on trial on Tuesday accused of forgery. Ayman Nour, leader…
The once-feared Syrian intelligence agents vanished from Beirut and large parts of Lebanon on Wednesday, but not before repainting the jail in the basement of their headquarters.…
Syria’s supporters in Lebanon struck back against the ”cedar revolution” this week with a show of strength that easily dwarfed anything their opponents have been able to muster.…
Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most traditional absolute monarchies, took a tentative step towards democracy on Thursday when male citizens went to the polls in the first…
Egypt is pressing ahead with ”very progressive” ideas for reform, but changing the way the president is elected is not one of them, at least for the time being, a spokesperson…
The weekend carnage in Khobar came less than a month after Saudi Arabia vowed to ”strike with an iron fist” against militants who carried out attacks and said it was making every…
”Why are most Africans, unless forced by dire necessity to earn their livelihood with ‘the sweat of their brow’, so loath to undertake any work that dirties the hands?” ”The…
They call it Shouting Valley — a remote spot in the Golan Heights where Syrians go to meet their relatives on the opposite side. Across the valley they can see each other and…
Syria’s youthful president sounded resolute and defiant this week in his first public comment on the Israeli air raid that struck deep into his country’s territory. ”We can, with…
A new tape purporting to be from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network has threatened an onslaught against the United States so devastating it would obliterate memories of the…
As FBI agents launched an investigation into the bombing of the UN headquarters in Iraq, Paul Bremer, the US’s top civilian administrator, highlighted three groups of suspects —…
The White House last night announced the capture of a man described as the mastermind of the Bali bombing: al-Qaeda’s chief representative and operational planner in south-east…
