The Economist thinks that Assad got away with it:…

The Economist thinks that Assad got away with it:

The Bishops Rebuff Aoun

The Maronite bishops have decided to put an end to Aoun’s habit of putting words in their mouth..
When the Patriarch warned against a chapter 7 resolution last month, M.P. Michel Aoun suddenly had a new, convenient soundbite: The Patriarch is on our side!
However, when the Patriarch made that infamous interview with a Kuwaiti newspaper in [...]

Who killed Hariri? Ghosts, if you ask Joshua Land…

Who killed Hariri? Ghosts, if you ask Joshua Landis.

Pelosi’s Levant Trip

Perhaps the American Speaker knows what she’s doing after all..

Frankly, when I heard that Nancy Pelosi is coming to Syria (to the objection of the White House), I felt my heart sink; Bashar was going to receive the highest-ranking American in two years, and his apologists are already celebrating the “collapse of Syria’s isolation”.
Are we [...]

Let’s Pretend We’re Enemies

The success of the Arab summit will depend on whether or not the Arab masses believe that Saudi Arabia is becoming less friendly with America.

The Arabs Are Coming

Let’s say you’re Saudi Arabia and you’re stuck with a strategic regional rival, Iran, whose President keeps blaring anti-western rhetoric that the Arabs just love to hear. How [...]

Who’s The Guest?

Emile Lahoud insists that Lebanese PM Seniora will attend the Arab summit as a ‘guest’. The Saudis don’t agree

Don’t let those pesky Arabs bully you

The Baabda palace issued a statement that the Arab League summit was for “kings, heads of state and princes” and that anyone else is only considered as a “guest.”
Perhaps Mr. Lahhoud, [...]

Is War Nigh?

Something deep in my gut is not comfortable with the latest Iranian British row.

I was having a mental exercise the other day. I was trying to figure out how the U.S would ever pull off a war on Iran with all the troubles it’s having at home with Iraq.
One of the ‘creative’ scenarios I thought [...]

Crystal Ball Or Folly?

Thomas Friedman suggested that the King of Saudi Arabia should declare the next Arab peace initiative from the Israeli parliament.
A wild speculations from an out-of-touch western journalist? Perhaps. It would have been more so if the writer weren’t Thomas Friedman, the journalist to whom King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, rather weirdly, first announced his Peace [...]