Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Omar Ahmed
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Israel’s main virus threat comes from its ultra-Orthodox community
Israel’s first confirmed case of the Covid-19 virus was on 21 February, after a citizen returned from Japan, since then the number has increased steadily, standing currently at 9,248 with 65 recorded deaths. These figures are modest when compared to the likes of Italy, Spain and the US, which all…
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After 5 years, Saudi Arabia is finally on the verge of defeat in Yemen
Exactly five years ago, the US-backed, Saudi-led Arab coalition carried out its first air strikes on Yemen in an effort to reinstate the disgraced, exiled President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. He is a statesman in name only who I have argued previously has neither power, authority nor legitimacy. The strikes targeted…
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Egypt has securitised Shi’ism, but Salafism arguably poses the greater threat
Last month, courts in Egypt ruled in favour of closing down local Shia TV channels and websites. Despite a previous decision to annul the verdict, it was overturned by the state council judiciary. Domestic internet service providers (ISPs) are now ordered to restrict websites affiliated with Shia Islam, including news…
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Memes as weapons of deception: Is social media shaping modern warfare?
Social media continues to influence our perception of conflicts around the world, though rapid updates around the clock on developments on the battlefield often hours before mainstream news picks it up, disseminating propaganda or spreading misinformation and fake news to the sharing of graphic content and the ugly brutality of…
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The fall of Hazm is the latest strategic blow for Saudi’s war in Yemen
As the fifth-year anniversary of the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen approaches this month, the allied forces of the Yemeni army and Ansar Allah – known as the Houthis – yesterday achieved a significant victory having taken control of Al-Hazm city, the provincial capital of Al-Jawf province, causing the Saudi-backed…
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The next Palestinian Intifada will involve more support from Iran
There are early signs that another uprising, or Intifada, will erupt in occupied Palestine. A couple of weeks ago, a spokesperson of the Gaza-based Al-Quds Brigades, an armed wing of the resistance faction Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), called on Palestinians to take up arms and attack military checkpoints and illegal…
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Turkey is starting to pay the price for undermining Syria’s sovereignty
With the constant, basic framing of the nine-year conflict in Syria as being one between the “Assad regime” and “rebels” coupled with viewing it from an understandable humanitarian perspective, it is easy to forget that above all, under international law, Syria is a nation-state. One whose territorial integrity has been…
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Syria film ‘For Sama’ wins BAFTA award
Syrian war documentary “For Sama” by Syrian Director Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts won the Best Documentary award at the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) last night. The film, which documented a young mother’s (Waad) experiences of the Syrian war has become BAFTA’s most-nominated feature documentary, having been nominated in…
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2020 so far: Iran and allies push forward despite losing Soleimani
The opening month of 2020 launched with a significant strategic blow to Iran and its regional allies, with the assassination of Major General Qassem Soleimani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) Quds Force, on 3 January. This act was primarily aimed at baiting Iran into war, based as…
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The truth about US casualties in the Iran attack is slowly coming out
We may never know the full extent of US casualties from Iran’s retaliatory missile attack on 8 January against two Iraqi air bases hosting US troops but for now at least, more information is gradually starting to surface, contradicting statements by President Donald Trump that “No Americans were harmed in…
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Iran, US conflict shrouded in the fog of war
The unlawful killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and the Iraqi deputy commander of the Hashd Al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces – PMF), Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis earlier this month, was based on allegations of “imminent threats.” US President Donald Trump stated that the elite Qud’s Force head, Soleimani, was planning attacks…
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‘Radical’ in Ramallah, the Palestinian skateboard scene
Skateboarding has come a long way since its invention in the US in the early 1950s, notably in California and Hawaii where it evolved for surfers to go “surfing” through the streets. It peaked over the following decade before fading in popularity due to safety concerns. The 1970s saw steel…
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Trump has no idea what he has done by killing Soleimani
As far as modern American military blunders go, the assassination of Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, along with the deputy commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, near Baghdad Airport last week is up there with the worst. This includes the fateful invasion of Iraq in…
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Soleimani’s assassination: America’s declaration of war on Iran
The decade has begun with a serious escalation in tensions between the US and Iran and further provocations which amount to acts of war now the Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp’s Quds Forces Qasem Soleimani has been killed in air strikes near Baghdad Airport. This was in swift…
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Saudi music concert slammed for being ‘mass sexual assault festival’
Lauded as the Middle East’s biggest music event, the so-called MDL Beast Festival ran from 19-21 December in the Saudi capital Riyadh promising to offer a “multi-sensory, multi-stage experience, showcasing both local and international talent, representing all spheres of the cultural landscape across multiple districts. A feast for the senses,…
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Syria, where chemical weapons watchdogs become weaponised
When it comes to commercially-controlled media coverage of the conflict in Syria, there has always been scepticism expressed by those who refused to wholly buy into the propaganda against the government in Damascus, it has been all too common to dismiss those holding such views as being conspiracy theorists or…
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It’s time for the international community to stop ‘recognising’ Hadi’s ‘government’
In spite of having no substantial physical political presence in Yemen, and no formal armed forces on the ground, the media is insistent on running with the same, tired expression of “the internationally recognised legitimate government” of the fugitive president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who has apparently been running the…
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We were deliberately left out of Syria’s constitutional process, Kurdish official tells MEMO
Although launched by the UN, the idea of the Syrian Constitutional Committee was originally put forward by Russia which, along with Turkey and Iran, is part of the Astana trio, an alternative peace process to that of the international organisation. Yet the second round of constitutional talks ended on Friday…
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Past and present perspectives on civil society in South Yemen
The Arab-British Chamber of Commerce was the venue for yesterday’s workshop organised by the Academic Forum Muhammad Ali Luqman and supported by Independent Diplomat focussing on civil society, women’s activism and the role of local and international media in current developments in South Yemen, in particular from a historical and…
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‘The EU knows Hamas isn’t a terrorist group, but is working to delegitimise it’
MEMO today co-hosted a one-day conference with the NGO EuroPal Forum on “The Palestine Question in Europe”. The event brought together an esteemed panel of speakers and experts on the Palestine-Israel question through the lens of Europe, in particular the EU’s foreign policy on core issues such as illegal Israeli…
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Arson attacks are the latest escalation in America’s shadowy war against Iran
The recent protests in Iran and neighbouring Iraq are based on legitimate grievances. However, as has also happened in Iraq, there have been elements in Iran carrying out arson attacks against state and public institutions. Whilst recognising the right to protest peacefully, both governments have made it clear that this…
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Riyadh delays the inevitable; the Houthis have the power in Yemen, Hadi has no authority
This week saw the signing of the much-delayed Riyadh Agreement between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government of exiled President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and the UAE-supported Southern Transitional Council (STC). The Saudis hope that this power-sharing initiative will quell the dispute between the rival factions so that their coalition can focus on…
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America’s ‘deep state’ and Israel won’t allow Trump’s troop withdrawal from Syria
The crocodile tears have stopped now that the world has yet again forgotten about the Kurds following the deals between Russia, Turkey, Iran, Syria and, to some extent, US President Donald Trump. It’s a win-win situation for everyone: Turkey gets its safe zone allowing it to resettle Syrian refugees; Syria…
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Why MEMO matters
After another successful MEMO-hosted Palestine Book Awards ceremony, in which literature on subjects related to Palestine was honoured. I wanted to shed light on MEMO’s willingness to be a platform for opposing opinions on the wider regional discourse, covering issues which have divided communities – who are often of the…