Concern-trolling over the dismal plight of women in Afghanistan is powerfully appealing to liberals who look for reasons for the United States to maintain a military presence there. If and when the Taliban return to power, the warmongers argue, the bad old days of stonings, burqas and girls banned from school will come back. And…
It’s up to the court of law to establish the facts about Al Jazeera’s investigation, but the very publication of the outlet’s series of reports has been enough to provoke an enormous international scandal involving Bangladesh, Qatar, India, Hungary, and “Israel” as the primary players. Al Jazeera published a series of scandalous reports last week…
A senior Israeli official told the London-based Arab news agency Elaph that the Saudis have stopped all behind-the-scenes negotiations with Israel. He claims that Saudi Arabia will not sign any peace agreement with Israel unless there is progress on the Palestinian issue. This and other reports in the world media came about two months after…
Hosting major sports tournaments can confer prestige on a country, but in the case of Egypt, the 2021 Handball World Championship will do little to repair its relations with the US, Italy and states in the Gulf, argues James M. Dorsey in this analysis. Egyptian general-turned president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi sees the 2021 men’s handball…
2021 began with a historic decision in the Middle East as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt decided to end their diplomatic and economic embargo against Qatar. The decision to end the embargo, that has been in place since 2017, was formalized during an extraordinary meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council…
Saudi Arabia, overtaxing itself in its vain efforts to establish dictatorial control over all the countries on the Arabian Peninsula, has recently moved toward a compromise with Qatar to end a devastating three-year conflict. However, as practice still shows – and many sources close to the negotiations say – a complete resolution remains unattainable, despite…
