Worldcrunch
RAS BAALBEK — There’s a 140-kilometer strip of land on top of the mountains just north of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley that marks the border with Syria. It’s here that ISIS has dug in, appropriating a remote corner of Lebanon where the terror group has accumulated militants, resources and hostages to gear up for an impending […]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has done great harm to Israel’s reputation, and the early elections he’s called for March are a perfect chance to end his hold on the nation.
Al Karak, with its famous Crusader castle, used to be an important place of power because of its control over the caravan route between Damascus and Egypt, and the pilgrimage route from Damascus to Mecca. But that was a long, long time ago. Just three months before we went there in 1996, there were food […]
TEHRAN — Every evening, Youseph walks by the mosque in Tehran’s Fatemi Square. Before heading towards his house, he looks up at the portraits of Ayatollah Khomeini and Iran’s current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that are on the walls of the building. Then he crosses the street and descends the hill to where he lives. […]
In another context, it might simply seem like diplomatic business-as-usual. But in Tehran, with potential game-changing nuclear talks in the balance, visits by the Austrian Foreign Minister and a key official of the British Foreign Office are being viewed as further proof that Iran want to move toward rapprochement with the West. In particular, the […]
Since the end of the Cold War, from the Middle East to Africa, almost every military intervention carried out by the world’s top powers leads to regime change. But rarely to stability.
KUWAIT CITY — Juan Valdez coffee shops, as familiar in some Latin American cities as Starbucks is elsewhere, opened their first franchise shop in Kuwait this month. The inauguration heralds the firm’s arrival in the cash-rich market of the Middle East, a region also believed to be key in cultural and branding terms. The chain […]
ARABICA: Your weekly shot of what the Arab world is saying, hearing and sharing.
NEW YORK TIMES (USA) Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – Nineteen American diplomatic outposts across the Middle East and North Africa will remain closed this week, the State Department said Sunday, despite what officials said was no new information about terrorist plots that they believe are in the works. One day after President Obama’s top national security aides […]
ROME – Italy is a place of culture, beauty, and a well-oiled style of life — crisis or not. Foreigners always return for more. But in order to make sure that the tourists keep coming back — and telling their friends — some guidelines are needed. According to data from the federation of hotels “Fedalberghi”, […]
Thinking beyond the top “papabili,” some have cited Cardinal Bechara al-Rahi, the Patriarch of Antioch. For the Church, the plight of Christians in the Middle East is a key issue of our times.
Delayed by the popular uprisings in the Arab world, the first-ever summit between Russia and the Arab League is on this week in Moscow. Though Syria is on the agenda, many the questions linger.
KFAR KAMA – Bent down in his field in this lower Galilee town, Amjad Shami points out the countless underground tunnels dug by voles. Three years ago, he says, these rodents destroyed his entire harvest. Shami says he continues to try to fight them with pesticides, which do little more than poison his land, infect […]
Israel’s January 31 aerial attack on a Syrian research facility and arms complex has raised once again the thorny question of when preemption against a developing threat may be justified under international law—as opposed to simply strategic calculation. Predictably, the Israeli bombardment elicited a hail of criticism from some regional and global players. Syria has […]
AL JAZEERA (Qatar), BBC NEWS (UK), CNN (USA) Worldcrunch GAZA CITY – Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal set foot in Gaza on Friday, ending 45 years of exile from the Palestinian Territories, reports Al Jazeera. After passing across the Egyptian border at Rafah, Meshaal knelt on the ground to offer a prayer of thanks and was […]
BRUSSELS – Over good food and drink, the dinner Tuesday of all of NATO’s foreign ministers was meant to be an informal exchange of the different points of view on the Middle East. But before the main course had been served most of the ministers had lost their appetite: The alliance’s Secretary General, Anders Fogh […]