In Depth

Russian influence in Belarus continues to grow. Since mass protests that erupted after the controversial August 9 presidential election did not result in a regime change, President Alexander Lukashenko managed to consolidate his power with the help of Russia. Will relations between Minsk and Moscow go from strength to strength? …

Under pressure of the United States, Serbia announced last week it will designate Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization. This unexpected decision came after Serbia and Kosovo, under the US President Donald Trump’s auspices, signed a controversial ‘historic deal‘ on economic normalization in Washington. By Nikola Mikovic On …

The Arab Muslim world struggles with sectarian and ideological conflicts that affect the stability and progress of the region’s states and count loss in human lives and economic devastation among their consequences. Sectarian conflicts are not exclusive to the Muslim world. By Dr. Haytham Mouzahem Both the Christian West and …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD   CONTINUED from yesterday…   A Parting of Genders, a Meeting of Minds? When I began to dream up this article some time ago I’d stumbled onto a fan of MD’s on Twitter, a fellow Arab, Nayli Yasmeen (@nayli_yasmeen), and we got to talking about …

 By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD   CONTINUED from yesterday…   Everybody’s ‘Bestest’ Big Sister Now Christian Papierniak’s little masterpiece Izzy Gets the F*ck Across Town (2017), which he also wrote. I could write a whole book about the movie and still not get completely to the bottom of it. I …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD       “I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute.” — Rebecca West   “The more identities …

Lebanon’s security forces used excessive levels of violence against tens of thousands of protesters who had gathered in downtown Beirut on August 8, 2020, to express their rage and frustration over the government and political elites’ incompetence and corruption. The ruling elites’ incompetence is widely considered to have led to …

The Beirut explosions on August 4, resulting from 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate igniting along with other explosive materials present in far lesser quantity in a warehouse, left more than 200 dead, dozens missing and around 300,000 homeless. The explosions raised global concern and empathy for Lebanon. Importantly, the explosions …

A secret push by President Donald Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner to sell advanced arms — including F-35 stealth fighter jets — to the United Arab Emirates has caused confusion and frustration among agencies and congressional committees that would normally be involved in such a sale but have been left …

The explosion in Lebanon leads back to an abandoned ship in Beirut that had arrived in the city carrying 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate. Reporting by DER SPIEGEL and OCCRP has determined that the ship’s owner has connections to Hezbollah’s bank. By Maximilian Popp, Christoph Reuter und Fritz Schaap In …

More Arab nations are on a path to normalising ties with Israel, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Anwar Gargash said on Thursday, a week after the UAE agreed to a peace accord with Israel. Dr Gargash said a normalised relationship with Israel under the Abraham Accord would be …

We don’t hear many good news stories out of the Middle East, particularly recently, in the midst of the despair over Beirut, regional conflicts and the ravages of covid-19. But on Thursday there was a hopeful development: President Trump announced a historic peace agreement that will normalize relations between the …

By DAVID ROMANO   So, Lebanon’s prime minister and leading government ministers announced their resignation on Monday evening. They evidently preferred to fall on their swords after demonstrations in Beirut featured effigies with nooses around the necks of Hassan Diab, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and others. The question is, will …

by James M. Dorsey | Jul 30, 2020 Saudi support of religious ultra-conservatism in Indonesia contradicts Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s promotion of an undefined form of moderate Islam intended to project his kingdom as tolerant, innovative, and forward-looking. It also suggests that Saudi Arabia is willing to work with the Muslim Brotherhood …

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan called this week to discuss peace talks to end clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan that broke out mid-July. Both Russia and Turkey are fighting proxy wars in Syria and Libya, and if the situation in the Caucasus escalates the …

After having concluded a $400 billion strategic deal with China Iran now aims to sign a long-term partnership agreement with Russia. From the Islamic Republic’s perspective, good relations with Moscow and Beijing, as well as possibility to expand economic cooperation with the two countries, will help Iran to easier cope …

The Egyptian regime has reacted in an unexpected way to the global pandemic—with civilian, technocratic, and expert bodies leading the way and even some (admittedly officially patrolled) political debate being allowed to emerge. Does this portend a real change in Egyptian governance, and if so, why, what kind, and will …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD     “An artist should be as impartial as God.” — Wyndham Lewis   “The summary of the advice of all prophets is this; Find yourself a mirror.” — Shams Tabrizi   Well, as luck would have it, some time ago I’d written a review …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD     “With most people, not describable as artists, all the finer part of their vitality goes into sex. They become third-rate poets during their courtship. All their instincts of drama come out freshly with their wives. The artist is he in whom this emotionality …

by James M. Dorsey | Jul 14, 2020 An initial version of this story was first published in Inside Arabia A podcast version of this story is available on Soundcloud, Itunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spreaker, Pocket Casts, Tumblr, Podbean, Audecibel, Patreon and Castbox. A Palestinian move to secure Palestine’s energy needs by tying them to high-stakes Turkish regional gambits constitutes an effort to reduce Palestinian dependence on …

The New York Times accusations of Russia allegedly offering bounties to members of the Taliban movement for killing American soldiers in Afghanistan resulted in increased anti-Russia sentiment in the US. The Donald Trump administration will likely be under pressure to impose fresh packages of sanctions against Moscow, even though some …

06 Jul 2020 This story first appeared as an MEI Insight A podcast version of this story is available on Soundcloud, Itunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spreaker, Pocket Casts, Tumblr, Podbean, Audecibel, Patreon and Castbox. Resolving the tug of war in the Middle East will require a backing away from approaches that treat conflicts as zero-sum games, and engagement by all regional and external players. …

Israel’s annexation of the West Bank could push it down a path that challenges its Jewish and democratic character. The agreement establishing the current Israeli coalition government has set July 1 as the target date to begin consideration of the annexation in the West Bank. As this self-imposed deadline approaches, there …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD I have written an article a long time ago about a horror-SF movie I watched largely against my will, Dark Skies (2013), which fits into my longstanding research on sexual anxieties and alien abduction scenarios. I’d been thinking of writing a follow-up for some time …

By : Siba El-Samra   The shortage of public spaces, as well as walking and biking infrastructure in Lebanon, is not a new problem. During a pandemic, this shortage becomes time-critical and even more life-threatening, especially in dense Beirut. As cities around the world look to find ways to live with …

By James M. Dorsey   China was quick to aid coronavirus-stricken Sri Lanka. Chinese magnanimity and speed in responding to the Indian Ocean island’s request contrasted starkly with Beijing’s more measured response to Africa’s needs, widely expected to be the pandemic’s next hotspot. Geography was but one reason why China …

By James M. Dorsey     Europe is progressively being sucked into the Middle East and North Africa’s myriad conflicts. As if wars on its doorstep in Libya and Syria were not enough, UAE support for an Eastern Mediterranean pipeline that could hurt Qatar economically — combined with Greek, Cypriot …

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD     “It is very true that one cannot always go by the principles of Marxism in deciding whether to reject or to accept a work of art. A work of art should, in the first place, be judged by its own law, that is, …

BY LYU JINGHUA   Neither side wants to appear weak, but recent actions and rhetoric by both sides has put all of us in greater danger of U.S.-China military tensions sliding into armed conflict. The coronavirus pandemic is reshaping the U.S.-China relationship — but in the opposite of the way …

A regular survey of experts on matters relating to Middle Eastern and North African politics and security (By MICHAEL YOUNG) Assaad al-Achi | Executive director of Baytna Syria, Syrian civil society activist Although leadership tensions, at least public ones, are extremely rare in Syria, they have always existed since Hafez …

The Covid-19 pandemic has been dominating the global news for months now. Almost half of the world’s population is under social or economic corona lockdown. People are afraid. In the background, an unprecedented global crisis that could lead to a dramatic international systematic transition from a Pax Americana to a …

The Covid-19 pandemic captivates us all with unprecedented social and economic repercussions. Roughly half of the world remains under corona lockdown eagerly awaiting some positive news on the crisis. All eyes are pointed towards the World Health Organization (WHO), the institute created to handle global crisis situations. Instead of helping …

In times of crisis and panic, going against the flow is seen by many as inconvenient. This is precisely the case in the current Covid-19 pandemic where people who dare to oppose the official information coming from institutions such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and other local health institutions …

Although the crisis precipitated by the new coronavirus pandemic is still in its very early stages, it is clear that it has vastly accelerated the ongoing processes around the world. The most consequential is the intensification of Sino-American rivalry and the emergence of new global bipolarity. By Dmitri Trenin It is …

The outbreak of COVID-19 has given the entire world a reality check with regards to over consumption especially when it leads to greater pollution. Global Warming has never been more relevant an issue than it at this given time. By Lara Issa The fact that pollution levels have drastically decreased …

In his book Plagues and Peoples historian William Hardy McNeill uses two concepts to describe the impact of diseases on humankind. One are the micro-parasites: the bacteria, viruses and other invisible lifeforms that cause disease. The other are the macro-parasites: the rulers, states and conquerors that impose taxes on subjects, …

By Oula Kadhum | Post-doctoral fellow at the University of Birmingham, teaching fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where she specializes in diaspora and Middle Eastern politics The Iraq protests are not a flash in the pan. Rather, they represent a historical turning point for …

The social and economic corona lockdowns all over the world are not due to end anytime soon. The measures taken kill off businesses critical to the livelihoods of millions of people. They have precipitated the unemployment of tens of millions of people – and continue to cause an unprecedented global …

If the Covid-19 pandemic has made one thing evident in the past months, it is the fact that the media should restrain itself and act more responsibly. It should stop feeding the coronavirus hysteria with daily infection and death statistic updates of which most are carelessly presented and often misinterpreted. …

Now that Hezbollah realizes its efforts to hide virus cases won’t work anymore, Washington should urge Beirut to put LAF medical and border-control personnel to work without resorting to a full state of emergency. By Hanin Ghaddar Hezbollah has been under serious scrutiny by the Lebanese people in the past …

The Coronavirus-hysteria has gone viral. Global media outlets report on nothing else but the consequences of what the World Health Organisation (WHO) stamped a pandemic weeks ago. In unprecedented moves people are told (forced) to stay home under lockdowns. Economies are being shut down, while the future consequences are largely …

Dubai – Despite the global panic surrounding the spread of coronavirus as cases and deaths continue to jump in the European Union (EU) and the United States, there is some positive news on potential vaccines, promising recovery rates and people coming closer together. By Arthur Blok | More than 470,000 …

By Dr. Haytham Mouzahem   On March 12, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a pandemic after more than three months of its spread in China and many countries all over the world. The coronavirus is affecting 167 countries and territories around the world, with 199,339 cases …

It’s no secret that tax law in the United States is extremely confusing. Even the length of the official tax code is subject to wild speculation; people estimate it to be somewhere between 2,500 pages and four times the length of the complete written works of Shakespeare. As a result …