Words, words, words. Bashar al-Assad knows his Hamlet, and he is not impressed. Yes, his isolation grows daily. A day after King…
The Egyptian cotton city of Mahallah hides its political lessons well. A place of 24-hour-a-day Stalinist factories, ruined 19th-century townhouses buried between…
Just when the Arab dictators desperately need to drink the secure, cool waters of an Arab summer, along came the Egyptians yesterday…
We shall not speak his name. Along the road to his trial – if it actually takes place – are rows of…
Ever a weathervane of passing fortunes, Walid Jumblatt has begun to make some very pessimistic comments about Syria. Druze leader, head of…
The book bazaar stands just opposite the main gates of Tehran University, a line of "libraries" of Persian poetry, American obstetrics manuals,…
The wretched of the earth high above turquoise blue seas; take a face mask with you before you clamber up the Jabal…
Syrians shot down in the streets across the country, tanks surrounding the major cities of Syria, soldiers killing unarmed, largely Sunni Muslim…
Something has gone badly wrong with the Egyptian revolution. The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces – just what the "Supreme"…
He is a caliph, I suppose, almost of the Middle Eastern variety. You hear all these awful things about Arab dictators and…
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