Flaunting the banner of democracy in the Middle East is the latest fad in Washington. Since the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, so-called ‘democracy promotion' has become one of the leading notions ostensibly guiding US policy in the Middle East.
Blaming America First: Inside the Hatred of the United States in the Middle East and Beyond by Laura Drake PhD. Pub: United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), Annandale VA, USA, Pp: 117. US$9.95.
One sometimes wonders how George W. Bush and other US officials can so seriously utter claims and statements that they and those around him must know are recognised around the world as absolute nonsense...
The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East (Third Edition) by David Hirst. Pub: Nation Books, New York, 2003. Pp: 626. Pbk: US$17.95.
In his jum’a khutbah on November 14, IMAM SAYYID ALI KHAMENEI discusses the US’s policies in the Middle East. Here we report his comments.
Since the war on Iraq ardent calls for "change" have become fashionable in Arab countries. These appeals come from various quarters. However, the variety of the demands for change betray the nature and the extent of the power-war currently unfolding in the region.
What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response by Bernard Lewis. Pub: Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2002. Pp: 180. US$23.00.
During his three-day Mideast tour last month, US secretary of state Colin Powell left no doubt about what the Bush administration has in store for Iraq and the region. Throughout his visit, Powell remained unrepentant about the recent American and British air-strikes on Iraq.
The new agreement between Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian ‘president’ Yassir Arafat, signed at Sharm al-Shaikh, near Alexandria, on September 5, was widely greeted as a new start to the ‘peace process’ that had appeared on the verge of stalling during the premiership of Benyamin Netanyahu.
‘Till death us do part’ may be a Christian marriage expression long out of fashion but it applies most aptly to rulers in the Middle East. Notwithstanding the constitutional monarchies of Europe which as mere show-pieces exercise little or no executive authority...
China is an emerging superpower. For decades, the west viewed it as an enemy because of its radical ideology. Many American cold warriors still consider it so despite far reaching changes in China. These have of necessity affected its foreign policy preferences as well. Within China, old ideas have had to be discarded and new realities taken into account.
Buoyed by his success in securing the Northern Ireland peace agreement, British prime minister Tony Blair last month embarked on a five-day Middle Eastern tour in an attempt to revive the long-stalled “peace process.”
Nowhere in the Middle East was the anger of the masses at yet another threatened strike against Iraq by US-British forces more apparent than in Jordan.
Browsing through the index of any Year Book on the Middle East creates the immediate impression that it is either about a region on some other planet, or that the Arab world enjoys more than its share of political, economic and social cohesion as well as cooperation.
THE oil-rich countries of the Middle East lag behind some of their more impoverished neighbours in science and technology, according to a survey of science in the Arab world published by UNESCO, the United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
Arab rulers, long denied their favourite passtime - rhetoric - as a result of the US-sponsored ‘peace process’ in the Middle East, have discovered a new sport: belching. At least 20 kings, shaikhs, presidents, generals and colonels met in Cairo for two days from June 21 in what was to be a summit of loud belching.
