It is difficult to understand the strategy of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, if he has any, following the brutal murder of an Arab youth in occupied Jerusalem last week, apparently by a group of radical Jews.

If there is anything to be learned from the events of the past few weeks in Iraq and Syria, it is that politics makes strange bedfellows. The enemies of yesterday could easily become the allies of today, although often only until the winds change direction again. The United Sta

More than two weeks have passed since fighters belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) stormed the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, extending their control over the governorates of Nineveh, Salaheddin and Anbar. They have been assisted by armed Sunnis and forme

In retrospect, the Sunni uprising that is gripping northern and eastern Iraq today was bound to take place eventually. Eight years under Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s self-serving policies of political exclusion and marginalisation pushed Iraq’s Sunnis over the ed

With Sunday’s swearing in of Abdel Fattah Al Sisi as president of Egypt, in the presence of Arab, regional and international leaders and representatives, a tumultuous chapter in this country’s history nears its end. There is a sense of hope that after more than three

President Barack Obama’s foreign policy speech at the West Point Military Academy last week was criticised by pundits for being vague about America’s military response to ongoing and future crises around the world. The US president talked about America’s leader

It was only a matter of time before someone would step in to fill the power vacuum in Libya, and that was a nationalistic retired general, Khalifa Haftar, who had once led the nascent Libyan National Army, which was formed after the fall of Muammar Qadhafi in 2011. Last week, Ha

Unless swift and coordinated action is taken, the region will be overtaken by small but toxic wars that extend from western Iraq to eastern and southern Syria, and from northern Sinai to Yemen and parts of Saudi Arabia. The checkered battlefronts promise to exhaust regime resour

The race to the presidential palace in Egypt has officially kicked off this week with only two candidates in the race: Former defence minister Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, considered by most as the favourite, and underdog veteran politician for more than 40 years, Hamdeen Sabahi. There