January 14, 2021 |
Muhammad Hussein When supporters of the soon-to-be ex-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol Building in Washington DC last week, many things were revealed that day. We saw the lengths that Trump...
January 6, 2021 |
Muhammad Hussein Torture is an evil as old as conflict, and there is much more to it than the sort of thing usually seen in the movies. It is, sadly, a...
December 23, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein Afghanistan has long had a security problem, despite the many who have sought to guarantee its safety. The latest of those revealed themselves this week when Iranian Foreign Minister...
December 11, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein Nuclear weapons have long been a dream of Middle Eastern states wishing to expand their influence or outdo their rivals, and they have never been closer to that dream...
November 30, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein Of all Turkey's strained relations in recent years – its disputes with the United States, conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean and military confrontations in Syria and Libya – the...
November 19, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein It is unusual for Iran to have a sudden change of heart in its foreign policy. Indeed, it can be said to be one of the firmest and most...
November 9, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein Not many people have seen or even heard of, the black flag of Cyrenaica with its white crescent and star; a black version of the Turkish flag, perhaps. Events...
October 27, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein France under President Emmanuel Macron has been making more than a few international waves over the past few months. It has involved itself in the dispute between Greece and...
October 18, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein On this day nine years ago, the historic prisoner exchange deal between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas took place, with its long-lasting effects still impacting on the present day.
October 12, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein Rashid Khalidi's telling of the story of the loss of his homeland and its gradual invasion is a deeply personal one, and is unlike other more detached accounts I...
October 7, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein Our interview with UK-based Kurdish writer Dana Nawzar
September 16, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein The past few years have demonstrated to the Axis of Resistance – the motley alliance of "anti-imperialist" imperialists – that its efforts in the Middle East have not gone...
September 5, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein Not since Napoleon stepped foot on the shores of Alexandria in July 1798, embarking on his short-lived invasion of Egypt, has a Frenchman so imperiously sought to topple a...
September 2, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein In search of a better life in Europe...
August 25, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein A week ago, justice of sorts was meted out to those suspected of being behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005; one member of...
August 17, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein While the US' Deal of the Century ran out of traction earlier this year before it even took off, Israel's own version took effect last week when it reached...
August 4, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein Almost a month after the Turkish government overturned the 1934 ruling that converted the Hagia Sophia into a museum, the response from the international community to it becoming a...
July 23, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein What: The dissolution and division of the Ottoman Empire and its former territories through the Treaty of Lausanne, leading to the establishment of the modern Republic of Turkey When:...
July 16, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein On 16 July 2014, Israeli missile killed four children of the same family on a beach in Gaza
An interview with former Deputy Prime Minister Cevdet Yilmaz
It is rare to see a government throw a sustained tantrum against another due to differences over foreign policy, especially without first attempting to solve it through diplomatic means....
June 27, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein The remainder of the rebel-held province of Idlib is proving to be the greatest experiment in nation-building that the modern world is witnessing, even if the world has largely...
June 22, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein Seeing is believing, as the saying goes. And after seeing the 53,275 photographs proving the torture and arbitrary killings committed by the Syrian regime which were smuggled out by...
Imagine that you are a peaceful protestor, never having broken glass or drawn blood, who demonstrated against institutional racism and police brutality in your local area. At home one...
Conflicts are meant to involve the living, with the dead being long withdrawn from the complex web of political alliances and bloody feuds that mankind revels in. So when...
On 19 May, 1935, Thomas Edward Lawrence passed away following a week of remaining in a coma caused by a motorcycle crash in Dorset, England. The British Arabist, linguist,...
Syria has undergone more drastic and chaotic shifts within the past month than it probably has throughout the past nine years of its conflict. The House of Assad now suffers...
Long before Turkey's revenge attacks against the Syrian regime in February, and even before the regime's offensive to recapture Idlib and its bombardment of the province, Turkey and Russia...
April 29, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein The coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic has caused countless events to be cancelled, forcing them onto the digital realm and leaving them to rely on the power of modern technology. Even...
April 20, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein In 2017, Abu Dhabi's Foreign Minister, Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan told a forum that, "There will come a day that we will see far more radicals, extremists and terrorists...
April 7, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein A chemical weapons attack was carried out on the people of Douma, south-western Syria, killing around 85 people
March 31, 2020 |
Muhammad Hussein Over the past few weeks of the coronavirus crisis, democratic governments around the world have imposed stricter controls on their citizens in more places than at any other time...
![A protester screams "Freedom" inside the Senate chamber after the U.S. Capitol was breached by a mob during a joint session of Congress on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC [Win McNamee/Getty Images]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/GettyImages-1294935359-scaled-e1610043910793.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
When supporters of the soon-to-be ex-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol Building in Washington DC last week, many things were revealed that day. We saw the lengths that Trump...
Torture is an evil as old as conflict, and there is much more to it than the sort of thing usually seen in the movies. It is, sadly, a...![Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Moscow, Russia on September 24, 2020 [Russian Foreign Ministry/Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/20200924_2_44514540_58386876.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Afghanistan has long had a security problem, despite the many who have sought to guarantee its safety. The latest of those revealed themselves this week when Iranian Foreign Minister...![cyber attacks [Flickr]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/20772328793_14d458b92c_k-e1561357903622.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Nuclear weapons have long been a dream of Middle Eastern states wishing to expand their influence or outdo their rivals, and they have never been closer to that dream...![Turkey’s Ambassador to the Czech Republic and former EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis poses during an AFP interview in Ankara on 18 February 2013. [ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-162121697.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Of all Turkey's strained relations in recent years – its disputes with the United States, conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean and military confrontations in Syria and Libya – the...![Azerbaijani and Turkey supporters celebrate the deal reached to halt fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region on 10 November 2020 [Resul Rehimov/Anadolu Agency]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/20201110_2_45290783_59647219.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
It is unusual for Iran to have a sudden change of heart in its foreign policy. Indeed, it can be said to be one of the firmest and most...
Not many people have seen or even heard of, the black flag of Cyrenaica with its white crescent and star; a black version of the Turkish flag, perhaps. Events...![Protest against President of France Emmanuel Macron over his anti-Islam remarks in Istanbul, Turkey on 27 October 2020 [Yasin Aras/Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Macron.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
France under President Emmanuel Macron has been making more than a few international waves over the past few months. It has involved itself in the dispute between Greece and...
On this day nine years ago, the historic prisoner exchange deal between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas took place, with its long-lasting effects still impacting on the present day.
Rashid Khalidi's telling of the story of the loss of his homeland and its gradual invasion is a deeply personal one, and is unlike other more detached accounts I...
Our interview with UK-based Kurdish writer Dana Nawzar![President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, Turkey on August 21, 2020 [Tur Presidency/Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Anadolu Agency]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/20200821_2_43988593_57563435.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
The past few years have demonstrated to the Axis of Resistance – the motley alliance of "anti-imperialist" imperialists – that its efforts in the Middle East have not gone...![French President Emmanuel Macron (L) and Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi (R) give a joint press conference following talks in Baghdad, Iraq on September 02, 2020 [Iraqi Prime Ministry Press Office / Anadolu Agency]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/20200902_2_44172108_57861317.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Not since Napoleon stepped foot on the shores of Alexandria in July 1798, embarking on his short-lived invasion of Egypt, has a Frenchman so imperiously sought to topple a...
In search of a better life in Europe...![A Lebanese protester holds a placard in front of Mohammad al-Amin mosque during a demonstration in central Beirut, on 6 June 2020. [ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1217981743.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
A week ago, justice of sorts was meted out to those suspected of being behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005; one member of...![A group of Palestinians protest against United Arab Emirates and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed in East Jerusalem’s Old City on August 14, 2020 [Stringer/Anadolu Agency]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/20200814_2_43890779_57422425.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
While the US' Deal of the Century ran out of traction earlier this year before it even took off, Israel's own version took effect last week when it reached...![Muslims perform Eid al-Adha prayer while keeping social distance due to coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic at Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey on 31 July 2020. [ Ahmet Bolat - Anadolu Agency ]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/20200731_2_43695931_57110183.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Almost a month after the Turkish government overturned the 1934 ruling that converted the Hagia Sophia into a museum, the response from the international community to it becoming a...![Signing of Treaty of Lausanne [Wikipedia]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Signing-of-Treaty-of-Lausanne.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
What: The dissolution and division of the Ottoman Empire and its former territories through the Treaty of Lausanne, leading to the establishment of the modern Republic of Turkey When:...![Boys from the Palestinian Bakr family who survived an Israeli attack, killing four children from their family while they were playing at the beach in Gaza City on July 16, 2014, walk on the beach in Gaza City on 29 March 2015 [MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/GettyImages-468201128-1.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
On 16 July 2014, Israeli missile killed four children of the same family on a beach in Gaza
An interview with former Deputy Prime Minister Cevdet Yilmaz![French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greet each other during a joint press conference in Paris, France on 5 January 2018 [LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/Getty Images]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Macron-Erdogan.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
It is rare to see a government throw a sustained tantrum against another due to differences over foreign policy, especially without first attempting to solve it through diplomatic means....![Collapsed and damaged buildings after Russian warplanes hit residential areas in Idlib, Syria on 30 January 2020 [İzzeddin İdilbi/Anadolu Agency]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/20200130_2_40591811_51672740.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
The remainder of the rebel-held province of Idlib is proving to be the greatest experiment in nation-building that the modern world is witnessing, even if the world has largely...![A Syrian military defector using the pseudonym Caesar, while also wearing a hood to protect his identity, testifies about the war in Syria during a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, 11 March 2020. [SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/GettyImages-1206550462.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Seeing is believing, as the saying goes. And after seeing the 53,275 photographs proving the torture and arbitrary killings committed by the Syrian regime which were smuggled out by...
Imagine that you are a peaceful protestor, never having broken glass or drawn blood, who demonstrated against institutional racism and police brutality in your local area. At home one...
Conflicts are meant to involve the living, with the dead being long withdrawn from the complex web of political alliances and bloody feuds that mankind revels in. So when...![Thomas Edward Lawrence [Wikipedia]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Lawrence-Arabia.png?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
On 19 May, 1935, Thomas Edward Lawrence passed away following a week of remaining in a coma caused by a motorcycle crash in Dorset, England. The British Arabist, linguist,...![Syrian Kurds in Syria's Hasakeh province on 6 October 2019 [DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Syrian-Kurdish-militias.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Syria has undergone more drastic and chaotic shifts within the past month than it probably has throughout the past nine years of its conflict. The House of Assad now suffers...![A photo taken from Turkey's Hatay province shows children greets soldiers with Turkish flags during Turkish military convoy consisting of howitzers, military vehicles and armored personnel carriers on the way towards observation points in Syria's Idlib, on 7 February, 2020 in Hatay, Turkey [Cem Genco/Anadolu Agency]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/20200207_2_40729461_51918600-scaled-e1582799658220.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Long before Turkey's revenge attacks against the Syrian regime in February, and even before the regime's offensive to recapture Idlib and its bombardment of the province, Turkey and Russia...![This long exposure photograph shows Muslim pilgrims circumambulating the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine, at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca on 27 August, 2017 [KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/GettyImages-839936618.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
The coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic has caused countless events to be cancelled, forcing them onto the digital realm and leaving them to rely on the power of modern technology. Even...![Libyan Army forces wear masks to protect themselves from coronavirus (COVID-19) as they attend "Operation Peace Storm" of the Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) against the forces of warlord Khalifa Haftar in Tripoli, Libya on March 25, 2020. [Amru Salahuddien - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/20200328_2_41603714_53456983.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
In 2017, Abu Dhabi's Foreign Minister, Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan told a forum that, "There will come a day that we will see far more radicals, extremists and terrorists...
A chemical weapons attack was carried out on the people of Douma, south-western Syria, killing around 85 people![A freeway sign that says 'Stay Home Stop The Spread' is seen in New York, US on 25 March 2020 [Tayfun Coşkun/Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Coronavirus-measures_2.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Over the past few weeks of the coronavirus crisis, democratic governments around the world have imposed stricter controls on their citizens in more places than at any other time...