Middle East

Saudis call Obama speech meaningless drivel

By SIRAJ WAHAB, MAHER ABBAS & GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN | ARAB NEWS RIYADH/DAMMAM: Saudis dismissed US President Barrack Obama’s much-anticipated “Arab Spring address” as meaningless, predictable drivel while Egyptians and other Arabs, to whom Obama offered some sops, also did not find anything new in the speech, which according to […]

Obama announces ‘new chapter in American diplomacy

Washington (CNN) — The United States will support efforts for reform across the Middle East and North Africa, including “transitions toward democracy,” President Barack Obama said Thursday. In a speech at the U.S. State Department laying out his policies toward the region, the president said he is marking “a new […]

A true resurrection in Iraq

Two Christian communities in Baghdad show real hope for Iraq’s historic diversity – if politicians do their bit by Michael Nasir Ali The savage attack on Christians worshipping at Our Lady of Salvation Chaldean Catholic church in Baghdad drew the world’s attention to the violence against Christians and other minorities, […]

Bahrain accepts resignation of opposition MPs

Resignations over crackdown leave lower house with just 22 members as more accusations of torture are levelled. Bahrian’s parliament has accepted the resignations of the last seven lawmakers of Al Wefaq, the country’s largest Shia opposition party. The resignations, approved on Tuesday, were submitted in February in protest over the […]

‘Islamic awakening in Mideast promising’

The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) expresses optimism about the positive effects of Islamic awakening in the Middle East on the fight against arrogant powers. The growing campaign against arrogant powers and dictatorship in the region is promising and would cause accomplishment among Muslims, said Saeed Jalili […]

Prediction: The U.S. Stays in Iraq

It is becoming almost certain that the U.S. succeed in forcing Iraq to “invite” thousands of American troops to stay indefinitely in the latest imperial outpost of the United States in the Arab world. [New York Times, May 12] To recap: the Bush administration signed a pact with the Iraqi […]

Saudi Arabia Defies Mideast Upheaval

Saudi Arabia is leading a counter- revolution against the sweeping political changes in the Middle East by using money, force and God. As popular movements for democracy toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia and began threatening neighboring Bahrain and Yemen, Saudi Arabia’s Al Saud royal family strengthened control over the […]

S H A M E ! (breaking News from Abu Dhabi)

The United Arab Emirates has hired the in-famous private security firm ‘Blackwater’ to establish an 800 mercenary army (as a first step) to keep the Rulers safe… The crown prince insisted that no Muslim should be part of this ‘force’ (because a Muslim may refuse to kill another Muslim, presumably). […]

Does NATO Divide the Atlantic Partners?

History will remember the Libya war by how it ends, not how it began. And it’s far too early to declare success or failure. The manner in which the war started though, allows us to draw three broad conclusions: Barack Obama successfully delegated the burden of global policing. Europe, for […]