Although the traditionally powerful Iranian merchants have lost influence and seen their economic privileges decline under Ahmadinejad, they do not challenge the status quo. Ali Hedayat explains why
A pattern of attacks in the United States and Europe by individual jihadists is deeply connected to both the effects and the perceptions of a decade's war across the greater middle east.
Relations were knocked back when a seemingly innocuous statement snow-balled into a something of much greater consequence last spring. In April the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, set off alarm bells by claiming – without evidence – that Syria was shipping SCUD missiles to Hezbollah.
With the Special Tribunal of Lebanon indictment for the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri set to be issued ‘very, very soon’, the weary and the wary in Lebanon are holding their breath.
Who has benefited most from the assassination of Rafik Hariri? As the UN special court on Lebanon arrives at its version of events, one Lebanese reading finds confirmation in Wikileaks for pointing us in a different direction.
Iran is again at the centre of international politics. Its diplomats are discussing their nuclear plans. Its nuclear specialists are being targeted in Tehran. Its Saudi neighbours are pleading with the Americans to bomb it. But most serious of all, the momentum behind an Israeli military assault o
North Korea reveals details of new nuclear power plant. Iran blamed ‘Zionist regime’ for assassination of top nuclear scientist. Gaza blockade still 'crippling' Palestinians. Congolese army accused of instability and smuggling. All this and more in today’s security briefing.
War on Rio’s drug gangs pushes forward, with thousands of paramilitary forces involved. Moroccan security forces accused of deliberately targeting Western Sahara civilians. Protests occur as Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood claims election fraud. All this and more in today’s security briefing.
On Friday, the official news service of North Korea accused the US and South Korea of pushing the peninsula to the brink of war. Israeli armed forces have been witnessed demolishing a mosque and other buildings in the occupied West Bank. Nouri al-Maliki has been asked by the Iraqi President to for
The iron rule of Hosni Mubarak has dominated Egypt for three decades. The regime he heads is preparing for the succession and seeking to channel Egyptians’ hunger for change into a tool of retrenchment. The secular opposition is absorbed by the effort of staying in the political game; the Muslim B
Iraqi refugees in neighbouring Arab states are unwilling to return to their country and unable to emigrate further west. Their perilous situation needs to be addressed by the powers who created this humanitarian crisis, says Dawn Chatty.
