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East|West

US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) leaves after a caucus meeting at the US Capitol January 9, 2019 in Washington, DC. (AFP)

Disagreement over Israel boycott blocks US congressional vote

East|West

In this file photo taken on September 2018 US-backed forces are pictured near the village of Susah in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, near the Syrian border with Iraq. (AFP)

Foreign troops in Iraq cut by a quarter in 2018, according to Baghdad

Saudi Arabia

A file photo from April 2018 shows a Saudi man looking at the solar plant in Uyayna, north of Riyadh, where Saudi Arabia is building what is set to be the world's biggest solar plant. (Reuters)

Saudi Arabia unveils renewable energy programme

East|West

A 2018 file picture shows US President Donald Trump (L) talking with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Trump threat adds new twist to US-Turkish row over Syria

East|West

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (R) meets with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the Royal Court in Riyadh, January 14. (AP)

Saudi leaders discuss Yemen situation with Pompeo

Economy

Tunisian General Secretary of Labour Union (UGTT) Noureddine Taboubi gives a speech during a civil servants general strike in the capital Tunis, last November. (AFP)

Social discontent fuels concern for instability in Tunisia

Latest Issue

Issue: 188 | Sun, January 13, 2019

Top Stories

Strong Arab Gulf support for Pakistan frustrates Iran’s plans, boosts Khan

Mohammed Alkhereiji

Netanyahu’s government manoeuvres to ensure US recognition of Israeli control over Golan

Ibrahim Kadouni

Challenges abound for Iraqi government

Manuel Langendorf

Houthis torpedo UN peace efforts with deadly drone attack

US reiterates commitment to counter Iran, faces more tensions with Turkey

Egyptian president confirms security coordination with Israel in CBS interview

Opinion

VR goggles can’t reveal Trump’s Syria strategy

Rashmee Roshan Lall

Iraq’s chaos is not what Iraqis have dreamt

Ibrahim al-Zoubeidi

A weaker Macron is good news to European populists

Iran’s opaque politics of succession to Khamenei

Will 2019 see an end to the Hamas-Fatah divide?

Turkey-PKK grand bargain is a pipe dream

Beirut summit will only further pull Lebanon to the abyss

Editorial

Middle East

A Syrian child uses a bucket to bale out water from his tent in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. (AFP)

The plight of refugees in winter

EU

Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen gives a press conference in Copenhagen. (Reuters)

EU’s condemnation of Iranian terrorism

Iran

Bags with meat are seen near the wreckage of a Boeing 707 military cargo plane which crashed on the west of the Iranian capital, near Fath airport, near Karaj, Iran, January 14, 2019. (Reuters)

Military cargo plane crashes in Iran, 15 killed

Sudan

Although the unrest was triggered by the rise in the price of bread, Sudan has faced a mounting economic crisis over the past year

Sudan’s Bashir says protests will not topple him

Turkey

Trump said on Sunday the United States was starting the military pullout from Syria

Trump threatens Turkish economy if it attacks Kurds

Yemen

Huthi spokesman Yahya Sarea said Thursday's drone strike on a military base in Lahaj province, which killed several people, was a "legitimate operation against aggression"

Houthis boycott UN meeting, threaten more drone attacks

Syria

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (C) tours the newly inaugurated al Fattah al-Aleem mosque in Egypt’s new administrative capital, January 10. (AFP)

US reiterates commitment to counter Iran, faces more tensions with Turkey

East|West

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, is received by Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir, center, at the Royal Court, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Monday, January 14, 2019. (AP)

Pompeo meets Saudi leaders, agreement on 'de-escalation' in Yemen

Iraq

The two countries share a 179-kilometre (111-mile) border, and Jordan is a major importer of Iraqi crude oil.

Jordan’s king in Iraq for first time in ten years

Yemen

Soldiers inspect the scene of a Houthi drone attack at Al Anad Airbase in Lahij province, January 10. (Reuters)

Houthi drone attack ratchets up Yemen tensions

Maghreb

Tunisia’s Prime Minister Youssef Chahed (R) and Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi arrive for a meeting in the Carthage Palace on the outskirts of Tunis. (AFP)

Party politics challenge Tunisia’s secularists

Interview

Jean Paul Chami (C-L) speaks at a peace advocacy training session in Lebanon. (Peace Labs)

Jean-Paul Chami: ‘The region needs more peace fundamentalists’

Khadija Hamouchi

Maghreb

Moroccans chant slogans and hold up anti-government signs during a protest in Rabat, last November. (AFP)

Moroccan government bracing for public sector strikes

Economy

A boon to the economy. Gas tanks at the desert road of Suez city north of Cairo. (Reuters)

Egypt could compete with Russian gas exports to Europe

Travel

Berber village of Chenini (Tourism Ministry)

Off the beaten path: Chenini’s rare maritime oases in southern Tunisia

Society

Catching up. Iraqi women take part in an Iraqi government’s literacy programme for adults in Najaf. (AFP)

Arab Literacy Day puts spotlight on unmet challenge

Nesrine Romdhani

Society

Changing the rules. Jordanian influencer Anood Barqawi poses while taking a selfie. (Facebook)

The fashionable rise of Jordanian ‘influencers’

Culture

Not many African works. A customer browses books at a bookshop in Rabat. (AFP)

Arab world’s unjustified neglect of African literature

Culture

A witness to history. A view of the entrance to Cafe Riche in Cairo. (Twitter)

A Cairo social landmark where time has stopped

East|West

American tale. Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib of Michigan (L) and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota (R) after their swearing-in at the US House of Representatives, January 4. (AP)

A historic day in US Congress as Tlaib and Omar take oath of office