Commentary & Analysis

Despite the well-known difficulties of estimating large crowds, it is clear that the numbers game was played by the opposition and the military to orchestrate and justify the coup...

Between 1945 and 2008 an estimated 363 coups were staged on the African continent. Of that number, only 88 led to the transfer of power to civilian rule. Throughout...

Further to our detailed analysis of the controversial video "M B & Gama'a Islamiya throw kids off buildings in Sidi Gaber", with a long list of clues as to...

Nothing that the National Salvation Front in Egypt can say will ever disguise the fact that its leadership engineered a military coup against the elected president of the country....

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had precious little to celebrate on the 100th day of his Likud-led coalition government. The occasion was marked this week with a vote...

It was inevitable that Syria's bloody civil war would engulf the 530,000 Palestinian refugees in the country. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near...

Palestine was shaken by a number of diplomatic tremors this week. The aftershocks were felt as far away as Washington, forcing US Secretary of State John Kerry to postpone...

The battle of wills between Fatah's elite and the former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, Salam Fayyad, has finally ended with the appointment of his successor,...

The stage setting was as good as it gets; they hardly come bigger. US Secretary of State John Kerry chose the backdrop of the Davos conference of the World...

Inevitably, the 65th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba – Catastrophe – was overshadowed by calls to exercise refugees' right of return. Although the vast majority of Palestinians live in...

Israel's ethnic cleansing polices in the Naqab (Negev) region have entered a new and dangerous phase. A ministerial council for legal codes this week cleared the way for a...

Whenever Israel and America welcome an Arab initiative it must be in their favour. This is exactly what has happened with the Arab ministerial delegation to Washington offering to...

Israel's efforts to isolate the Gaza Strip politically are not working. Not even the recruitment of the US secretary of state has been enough to persuade Turkey's Prime Minister,...

Israel's "independence" celebrations are always underlined by an inescapable subtext; it is also the Palestinian Nakba – catastrophe. As Israelis celebrated their 65th anniversary this week, tens of thousands...

Despite the drums of war on the Korean Peninsula, US Secretary of State John Kerry has been busy shuttling back and forth to the Middle East. His latest visit,...

After months of delay the Islamic Resistance Movement in Palestine, Hamas, has completed its internal elections and returned Khaled Meshaal as head of the political bureau. More than 70...

The obviously orchestrated decision by the American and Israeli governments to release millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority (PA) may be too little too late. If the purpose...

Now that the Obama show has left town the Middle East can return to reality. All eyes are focussed on the 24th meeting of Arab heads of state due...

The Israeli President, Shimon Peres, has resorted to presenting himself as a moderate leader striving for peace and is using sweet talk to convince his listeners, particularly those in...

Israel's interim Defence Minister Ehud Barak was back in Washington this week for consultations with senior American officials. His monthly pilgrimages to Capitol Hill now seem more frequent than...

My story is no different from that of many other Palestinian young people who were born and have lived their whole lives under Israeli occupation. At 17, I was...

My story is no different from that of many other Palestinian young people who were born and have lived their whole lives under Israeli occupation. At 17, I was...

It is as if time stands still. Monday, 25th February was the anniversary of the massacre of 29 Palestinian worshippers in Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque, gunned down by Israeli settler...

The Palestinian national reconciliation talks have turned into a reconciliation process. Like the Middle East Peace Process, they are without progress and an apparent end. To boot, they can...

For the first time since its founding in 1969 the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has held a summit in Egypt. Already saddled with its own internal challenges, Egypt...

This year's King Faisal International Award for Service to Islam has been presented to Sheikh Raed Salah. The award is hugely significant. At a time when the Israeli desecration...

Two years on from its 25 January Revolution, Egypt has taken significant steps towards establishing a new order. Several institutional pillars have been installed, foremost among which are the...

The blood that has been spilt in Syria over the past two years has polarised the country and the region along sectarian lines. But while Syria is fracturing, the...

Western military interventions in the Muslim world are at best muddled and at worst fraudulent. In 2003, the US led an invasion of Iraq for reasons that changed like...

On Monday, Tunisia celebrates the second anniversary of its uprising against dictatorship. Through the sacrifices of generations of Tunisians, our country is now engaged in establishing a democratic society....

At the end of 2012, there were 4,656 Palestinian political prisoners being held in Israeli prisons and detention centres. That figure includes 178 administrative detainees, 11 women and 177...

When Benjamin Netanyahu launched his election campaign this week he taunted the world community and cocked a snook at international law with a defiant pledge to build more settlements...