Supporters of Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi had much to celebrate after his maiden appearance at the UN General Assembly last month. For them, it was a turning point...

Death in the Mediterranean is no longer the exception; it is the norm. More than 3,000 would-be immigrants have drowned trying to cross into Europe this year alone. Recent...

This is the question that is etched on everyone’s mind. If there is only one issue that Palestinians agree upon today it is the need for President Mahmoud Abbas...

Israel’s inability to crush the Palestinian resistance in Gaza has triggered renewed efforts to end its war. While Britain and France spearhead a European initiative to obtain a UN...

Even after its collapse, the Cairo negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians were, perhaps, the most important in many years. For the first time ever, Palestine Liberation Organisation/Palestinian Authority...

Tzipi Livni may no longer be Israel’s foreign minister but she still has a capacity to cause diplomatic tremors. Last weekend she did just this by declaring that there...

After almost one month of unspeakable Israeli savagery, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has finally decided to break his silence on Gaza. While some may say it is better late...

If war is a continuation of politics by other means, Israel’s aggression on the Gaza Strip has been a political disaster. Apart from its mass killing of civilians and...

Bad faith and defeat have underlined their record in Palestine. Israel’s vainglorious Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describes them as his friends. In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians denounce them as...

After his pathetic remarks concerning the Gaza Strip, it’s hard to see how Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas could ever regain the confidence and trust of his countrymen. His...

During the past week much has been written about whether the long expected third intifada has started. Opinion is still split down the middle. Despite the differences there remains...

Western appeasement of Egypt’s former army chief is as reckless as it can get. European leaders should know from their own history that appeasement only whets the appetite of...

The Palestinians have learnt from experience to be wary of political initiatives “Made in London”. They have witnessed how projects from the Balfour Declaration to the Oslo Accords were...

Even in the best of times it would take much more than good intentions and hope to make the unity arrangement between Fatah and Hamas work. Both parties have...

On the eve of the swearing-in of his new government, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas seems headed for the biggest test of his political career. Not only has the Israeli...

The decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to impose a compensation fine of €90m on Turkey for its 1974 “invasion and occupation” of Cyprus is unprecedented....

They could have gone to another friendly city in the Middle East or Europe, but a group of leading Egyptian opposition figures chose Brussels to launch their initiative to...

Like previous agreements, the Palestinian reconciliation deal has been described as “historic”. Officially, the damaging political split between Palestinians is over, but will this latest agreement be any better...

Is there any difference between the forthcoming presidential elections in Egypt and Syria? The Europe Union apparently believes that there is. While the EU has dismissed the Syrian process...

A week after over 500 anti-coup protesters were sentenced to death by Field Marshall Abdul Fattah Al Sisi’s regime in Egypt, the British Prime Minister David Cameron has launched...

It was not just the numbers that shocked the world but the manner in which it was done, when Judge Saeed Yusuf Al-Jazzar took just two sittings to sentence...

The obituary was short and candid. We regret the passing of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC); may it rest in peace. Though terminally ill for some time, some of...

They originated in different capitals but all were linked by a common cause: Egypt’s proscription of Hamas “activities” on its territory; Israel’s announcement that it intercepted an Iranian ship...

Since the July 2013 coup Egypt’s judiciary has undergone a complete transformation. Once renowned as a pillar of justice, it has become a rubber stamp used by the military...

Something remarkable happened in Egypt this week. The military junta that deposed the country’s first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, and is now putting him on trial for a plethora...

Soon after the signing of the Wye River Agreement in 1998 Israel’s minister of infrastructure in the first Netanyahu government, the late, unlamented Ariel Sharon, urged settlers to “seize...

The charges against deposed President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood co-defendants are a sad reminder of all that has gone wrong in Egypt since July last year. Those...

There is nothing imaginary about Israel’s threat to attack Gaza. It is real; both the Hamas-led administration and civilian population in the enclave have had to live with it...

Has the Israeli government crossed a red line in its dealings with the US? It is a reasonable assumption after Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon’s recent derisory comments about Secretary...

If he succeeds with his current “peace” initiative, John Kerry would have killed three birds, not two, with one stone. With the stroke of a pen his “proposed framework”...

“Be like the fruit tree,” advised Hassan Al-Banna. “When people hurl stones at you, off-load your fruits on them.” This was one of the guiding principles that the founder...

Israel’s international isolation has finally become a reality. Within the past week this was cemented by the absence of senior Israeli politicians from Nelson Mandela’s funeral, followed in rapid...