Russian President Vladimir Putin has been accused by the West of committing the mother of all sins when he ordered his army to take over Crimea and annex it to mother Russia, an action highly disruptive of the world order that emerged after World War II. And when Moscow went ahe

Theories abound, from experts and amateurs alike, on why the seemingly sudden surge in religious radicalism and extremism, especially after the advances of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, religious authorities and statesmen

The so-called Islamic State (IS) has been called all sorts of names, including cancer, plague and the mother of all evils. Yet, few bothered to ask what events or circumstances offered the right environment for this “affliction” to rise. In other words, what was the

Maybe the West is negotiating the wrong issue with Iran.  Instead of concentrating on the Iranian nuclear programme and whether it is peaceful or militarised, the US and its allies should be more concerned about the Iranian conduct regionally and internationally. The Irani

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now says that the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative is a thing of the past that has outgrown its usefulness. The Israeli leader went as far as to describe the Arab offer as “irrelevant”. It would be interesting to see what features

Whereas the majority of Muslims tends to believe that the genesis of Daesh (or the so-called Islamic State) could be traced by the stretch of the imagination to Wahabism, the orthodox Muslim sect founded by the 18th century preacher and scholar Mohammad Al Wahabi, a surprising nu

I always had qualms about any speedy rush into parliamentary governments in Jordan, and doubted that we were ready, or could be ready in the near future, for such an advanced form of democracy. As His Majesty King Abdullah repeatedly said, parliamentary governments req

The legal word estoppel, in layman language, means that a party that is wrong cannot benefit from the wrong act of another party over the same issue. This principle of law applies to the situations of Iraq and Syria after US President Barack Obama’s declaration of war

Some 21 lawmakers submitted a hasty memo calling on the government to refrain from taking part in any regional or international effort to combat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The rationale of the deputies is that action against IS contemplated by the NATO-based global coa