Syria on my mind
IN the mid-2000s, my sister was living in Damascus and I planned a visit to her and then a trip to Lebanon, together. But I could not secure a visa…
Straws in the Syrian whirlwind
THE pendulum of zealotry almost always ushers in intellectual subterfuge in its wake. The lightning, if not spontaneous, takeover of Damascus by mediaeval militias is being predictably applauded by Western journalists as…
Shifting Middle Eastern sands
THE unexpected thaw between Saudi Arabia and Iran is a major diplomatic triumph for China. In a rapprochement mediated by Beijing, the two archrivals, which had been engaged in a bitter…
Israel’s Yemen strike will embolden Houthis
Israel’s first attack on Yemen’s Houthis, who have defied months of strikes by the United States and Britain, will likely only embolden the rebels, analysts say. Saturday’s strike on the…
Horrors of Yemen, the forgotten war
This week’s column is an embarrassed response to a riveting reader’s comment from last week, where I lamented that Israel’s success in derailing all attempts at ceasefire meant that “bombs,…
Corruption, justice and accountability
Pakistan’s ranking on the global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), announced this week by the Berlin-based corruption watchdog, Transparency International, shows that during 2023 the country’s ranking was 133 while the…
Iranian and Hezbollah commanders help direct Houthi attacks in Yemen
DUBAI: Commanders from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group are on the ground in Yemen helping to direct and oversee Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping,…
Biden, the reluctant escalationist, seeks calm after Yemen strikes
President Joe Biden took office vowing to negotiate an end to a bloody war in Yemen and to remove US troops from harm’s way. He enters his reelection year by…
China and the new Middle East: Part – I
Due to its growing role in the Middle East, China is emerging as “an economic heavyweight…a diplomatic lightweight and…a military featherweight” in the region (RAND Corporation). There is no doubt…
Saudi reset and the new Arab order
Arab and Persian chieftains have been playing war and peace around the Persian Gulf since the great army of the Muslim Rashidun caliphate dethroned a divided and decentralised House of…
