Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Alastair Sloan
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Presidents Club link exposes Zahawi’s complicated businessman-cum-diplomat-cum-politician role
Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi was briefly famed last week when it became known that he attended the now-infamous men-only charity dinner for some of the country’s wealthiest CEOs, with predictably less than savoury mid-course entertainment. Dodging the attendant hostesses, our Iraqi-born Children’s Minister Zahawi scuttled for the door, to...
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The media needs to be honest about civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq
Walk along any High Street in Britain and ask passers-by who causes more civilian casualties in Iraq and Syria, the West or Russia, and you will almost certainly hear Vladimir Putin declared emphatically to be the “winner”. This is a reasonable response. He is responsible for a great deal...
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Britain must realise that Christians are threatened by Israeli settlers too
It too often falls between the cracks of the Palestine debate that the land squabbles in the holy land are not a two-way religious dilemma. As Patriarch Theophilos III put it in a recent controversial column for the Guardian, “One group that has always been a pillar of society...
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As centenary commemorations draw to a close, WWI still affects the Middle East
This year will see the last of the centenary commemorations of World War One. Remarkably few of such events held since 2014 have considered the war in its “World” context. They have usually emphasised the “Britain versus Germany” narrative, played out in the muddy fields of north-west Europe. However,...
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Trump owes Netanyahu an apology
Only a few weeks ago, Benjamin Netanyahu had it all. He had done the impossible and been able to announce that the Gulf States were on Israel’s side. What with Cairo already being fairly solidly against Hamas in the besieged Gaza Strip, this was clearly a diplomatic coup for...
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Everyone benefits from Israeli tech companies, except the Palestinians
In an op-ed for a special annual edition of The Economist, Benjamin Netanyahu calls his country “Innovation Nation”. The Israeli Prime Minister writes that “people everywhere benefit from Israeli innovations in their mobile phones, car navigation systems, life-saving drugs, medical devices – even in the cherry tomatoes in their salads”. Ever...
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The UAE is an oppressive state, so why does the Royal College of Art want a branch there?
Rumours abound that the Royal College of Art, perhaps the most prestigious art school in Britain, is contemplating the opening of a branch in Dubai. Speculation centres on a recent survey issued to students at the College, which asked whether they would feel comfortable with a sister operation opening...
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Pro-Israel lobbyists really must question their own morality
A new report from the British Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) presents itself as an “independent” critique of Jeremy Corbyn’s foreign policy in the Middle East. The eleven-page memo ends up as an apologia for hard-line Israeli security policy, simpering towards Israel’s new autocratic friends in Saudi Arabia...
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None of the many questions about Yemen really matter; the war just needs to end
Truth is famously the first casualty of war. Misinformation aimed at discombobulating the enemy, military cover-ups of the cock-ups or cruelties by “friendly” troops and a decent dose of propaganda for the doubting public back home all have a role to play in successful warfare. Britain is not at war...
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Bahraini pounds buy UK silence on human rights abuses
From a small office in central London, Bahraini exile Sayed Alwadaei is taking on the abusive monarchy that runs his home country. Amongst the most prolific commentators on the deteriorating human rights situation in Bahrain, activist Alwadaei has been indefatigable in his calls for basic reforms. His approach to human...
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It’s time UK ministers learn: Foreign policy conventions are matters of national security
Former International Development Secretary and lobbyist Priti Patel’s scandal has echoes from the past. Rather than learning those lessons – the Conservative party appears to have laid the groundwork for her louche approach to the importance of diplomacy being run by the government, not some freelance political hack. As many readers...
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BBC Persian correspondents are not spies
It has been alleged that there are 152 British spies operating in Iran. These men and women are not just shadowy attachés at the British Embassy in Tehran, or secretive returned émigrés, lurking in the shadows of Revolutionary Guard get-togethers. These people are journalists, and if they really are...
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Even the Labour party cannot get enough of Saudi’s war on Yemen
British peace activists Sam Walton and Reverend Daniel Woodhouse were arrested in January for breaking into a BAE Systems factory. Their aim was to “disarm” Typhoon fighter jets. “We did not want to take this action, but were compelled to do so in order to stop the UK government’s complicity...
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The left and the ‘Haftar paradox’
The arguments for and against toppling the nasty dictators of the Middle East go back to the late 1970s when Paul Wolfowitz first began agitating for the removal of Saddam Hussein. Wolfowitz was a typical neoconservative. They are often mischaracterised as “right-wing” or even “hard-right”. This description could not be...
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A Russia-Saudi rapprochement isn't happening
When the Saudi royal family booked out much of Moscow’s premium hotel estate earlier this month the media exploded with stories about a Russia-Saudi rapprochement. Russia managed to sell, it was reported, around $3.5 billion in arms. That sounded a great deal. A grand new romance had apparently erupted. Many thought...
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What next for Britain in Yemen?
When the Houthi uprising began in 2004, Saudi ears inevitably twitched. The government in Riyadh had spent the previous year building an enormous wall along the southern border to stop Al-Qaeda. The possibility of resurgent Zaidi rule in Yemen, absent since 1962, was a distinct possibility. This would not...
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British officials harbour doubts about Saudi-led investigations into alleged war crimes in Yemen
Internal emails obtained by MEMO show that British diplomats appear to be nervous about the quality of the investigation being carried out by the Saudi-led coalition into alleged war crimes by its forces in Yemen. The news comes as NGOs claim that Britain is set to obstruct an attempt...
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50 years since Khartoum, the Arab world united against the Palestinians
Fifty years ago the realities of the Khartoum Resolution were beginning to sink in. Signed on 1 September 1967 it contained the infamous three Noes – No peace with Israel, No recognition and No negotiations. The mantras paraphrased the intra-Arab deal clumsily, became a propaganda gift for the Israelis and,...
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Ignore the spin, the siege of Gaza endangers everyone, Israelis included, so end it now
Save the Children reckons that the Israelis have delivered a major project in record time, with the Gaza Strip described in the NGO’s latest report as “unliveable.” The United Nations made its own prediction in 2012, giving the territory until 2020 before it would be at that inhospitable stage. As...
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British universities should be more discerning about their choice of benefactors
Just over eighteen months ago, environmental campaigners in Britain received some surprising news. They had been working for three years to get the Tate Gallery in London to reveal how much money oil giant BP had given it between 1990 and 2011. The figure turned out to be relatively...
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Who benefits from a report into cigarette smuggling in the Maghreb?
The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) is one of the finest think tanks in the world. Its experts offer sober advice on foreign and defence policy far outstripping that of other, more politically motivated, organisations operating in and around Westminster. It is disappointing, therefore, to see that RUSI is being...
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Is Donald Trump to Raqqa and Mosul what Assad was to Aleppo?
Do Western observers deny that the West does bad things because they are part of a conspiracy led by some government or special interest group? Or is it because they are stupid, or are caught in some patriotic psychosis? If it is — as it so often is —...
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Children in the Middle East are suffering at the hands of friends and foes alike
There is an increasing focus on the suffering of women in wartime. Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) under former Conservative leader William Hague MP had an admirable partnership with the activist-actress Angelina Jolie, dedicated solely to highlighting women’s suffering in war zones around the world and, indeed, since...
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Is David Cameron's new role advising failed states a sick joke?
On 7 March 2011, at a special meeting held in the ancient British city of Derby, differences in the coalition cabinet burst into open argument. The issue at hand was whether to assist in a new Western operation to remove Muammar Qaddafi as leader of Libya. Kenneth Clarke, a more liberal Tory grandee, was...