Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Omar Ahmed
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Iran is emerging as a drone superpower
The advent of Turkiye’s Bayraktar TB2 combat drone has undeniably propelled the country to superpower status, at least when it comes to the manufacture and supply of unmanned aerial vehicles. The prevalence of Turkish drones in various conflicts from North Africa to the Caucasus has certainly helped to boost...
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The Huthi Movement in Yemen: Ideology, Ambition, and Security in the Arab Gulf
The devastating war in Yemen has been raging for eight years, and with the recent expiry of a UN-brokered truce, conflict between the warring parties remains unlikely to end any time soon. This is all to the detriment of the Yemeni people. The belligerents at the centre of this conflict...
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Power Born of Dreams: My Story is Palestine
Sharing a very personal account of his own incarceration at the hands of the Israeli occupation authorities, MEMO’s Palestinian political cartoonist, Mohammad Sabaaneh, offers us a glimpse into this harrowing and dehumanising experience in his graphic novel published last year, Power Born of Dreams: My Story is Palestine. Exploring topical...
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Algeria takes ‘French is a waste of time’ to heart with a shift towards English
Since July 2022 after President Abelmadijd Tebboune told reporters French was a 'war booty' language while English was an international one educational authorities scrambled to change the curriculum...
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Is the South Caucasus a new battleground for India and Pakistan?
The South Caucasus is no stranger to outside powers competing for influence and advancing their own interests. During the Cold War, for example, the region was on the front line of the ideological conflict between the West and the former Soviet Union. Due to the region’s close proximity to...
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The Palestinian National Movement in Lebanon: A Political History of the ‘Ayn Al-Hilwe Camp
Of the 12 official Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Ain El-Hilweh (‘Ayn Al-Hilwe) is the largest in both area and population and is known among its 33,000 or so inhabitants as the “Capital of the Diaspora”. This title is fitting considering the unmatched degree of political and territorial autonomy...
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Jinns and glass palaces: how Saudi’s dystopian desert city borders on the occult
Saudi Arabia’s The Line has been lauded as the world’s most futuristic city plan, and for good reason. The vertical, walled smart city will run entirely on renewable energy and aims to revolutionise urban planning, putting humans first. Catering for some nine million residents, the mirrored twin-skyscraper city will stretch...
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Lebanon is very close to its own ‘Bouazizi’ moment
The situation in Lebanon contains the main ingredients for another popular uprising: the dire economic and financial crisis; worsening food and fuel shortages; rampant corruption; and growing public disdain of the political elites. Put together, these grievances can be a potent mix leading to social unrest, as was seen...
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Israel targeted Palestinian Islamic Jihad due to its closeness to Iran
It is common knowledge that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) resistance movement maintains the strongest links with Iran and is ideologically closer to the Islamic Republic compared with the Gaza-based Hamas, although both receive funding and arms from Tehran. Of the two, the PIJ is also the more militant...
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The Making of Martyrdom in Modern Twelver Shi’ism: From Protesters and Revolutionaries to Shrine Defenders
The concept of martyrdom is one that is shared by all three Abrahamic faiths and one which, by the time of the advent of Islam, was understood firmly by Christians and Jews of the era. Yet what sets Islam apart from the others, argues Adel Hashemi in The Making...
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Before Turkey can normalise with Syria, it must agree with Iran and Russia who the ‘terrorists’ are
Despite being at the forefront of states determined to see the overthrow of the Syrian government by throwing its weight behind armed opposition factions over a decade ago, Turkey has hinted that it could follow other countries in the region in normalising relations with Damascus. As it stands, Ankara...
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Israel goes through governments like Manchester United goes through managers; both are in decline
Israel may not immediately spring to mind when thinking about England’s Manchester United Football Club, yet in terms of inconsistent leadership the self-declared Jewish state appears to be following a path that has epitomised the Red Devils ever since legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. The club...
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Why are states we don’t like ‘regimes’ while friendly ones have ‘governments’?
We are so used to hearing the R-word being used to describe adversarial or hostile states to the US and collective West...
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Demolishing Muslim protestors’ homes: India is taking a leaf out of Israel’s book
Over the weekend Indian authorities bulldozed several homes belonging to Muslims in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh (UP). The homeowners were alleged to have taken part in organised protests on Friday in response to inflammatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) made by the now...
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After Iraq, who will be next to criminalise ties with Israel: Algeria or Yemen’s Houthi government?
Last week, Iraq’s Parliament passed a new law criminalising normalisation with Israel, becoming the first Arab country to formally ban normalisation with Israel. The motion was described in a statement as “a true reflection of the people”. The move has seen mixed reactions, with Iran praising the decision and...
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It’s worth remembering that it was Hezbollah that liberated South Lebanon from Israel’s occupation, through armed struggle
As the sole Lebanese armed faction from the country’s civil war implicitly allowed to retain its arsenal in accordance with the 1989 Taif Accord that ended the conflict, the Hezbollah movement has faced incessant calls to disarm by political and sectarian rivals alike, both domestic and foreign. These stem largely...
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Iraq banning ties with Israel, demonstrates only Iran-aligned Arab states oppose Zionism
On Wednesday the Iraqi Council of Representatives approved, in the first reading, a draft bill banning normalisation of ties with Israel. If passed, it will make Iraq the first Arab state to formally criminalise normalisation with the occupation state. The legislation, which will also apply to the autonomous Kurdistan Region...
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Killing resistance leaders won’t kill the will or right to resist Israel’s occupation
Following Thursday’s axe and knife attack in the illegal Israeli settlement of Elad which killed three settlers, there have been calls from Israel’s security establishment and media for a return to the targeted killing of Palestinian resistance leaders. It is reported that warnings to this effect have been conveyed...
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Remembering the 1994 Yemeni Civil War
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI Yemen was divided with the north and south forming separate countries ...
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Yemen’s President Hadi has effectively been sacked by Saudi Arabia
Yemen’s newly-formed Presidential Leadership Council was sworn in on Tuesday before parliament in Aden. The southern port city has served as the internationally-recognised government’s interim capital since March 2015, days before the ongoing Saudi-led coalition’s military intervention was launched. Purportedly at the request of the exiled government, this intervention...
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Will Khan’s ousting be Pakistan’s Mosaddegh moment?
The US and British governments denied their roles in the 1953 coup against Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, for decades. Although western complicity in the toppling of Iran’s government was common knowledge, it was only in 2013 that America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) finally admitted its involvement...
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Pakistan’s Imran Khan should have learnt from Erdogan’s dealing with the army
Pakistan is going through a constitutional crisis after Prime Minister Imran Khan avoided a no-confidence vote on Sunday which was initiated by opposition legislators late last month in an attempt to oust him amid accusations of economic mismanagement and spiralling inflation. In response, Khan claimed that a “foreign conspiracy”...
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Algeria should welcome and be wary of the attention it’s receiving for its gas
The conflict in the Ukraine has become the latest crisis that has exposed Europe’s dependency on Russian gas, which accounts for some 40 per cent of the EU’s natural gas imports. These concerns have only been heightened following Moscow’s demand that “unfriendly” countries must pay in rubles, in response...
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While the West is preoccupied with pronouns and ‘cancelling’, actual power is shifting eastwards
As the first conflict to take place in the era of popular cancel culture, the widespread social media backlash against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month and ongoing military operations was expected. This was accompanied, not only by Western sanctions against Moscow, but a plethora of major Western brands...
