عرب و اسلام سیاسی

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad's trip to Beirut this week will likely produce a flurry of rhetorical challenges against Israel and perhaps even a visit to the Israel-Lebanon border. But one purpose of the trip may be aimed at influencing the fate of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), charged with

On October 1, incumbent Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki moved a step closer to gaining a new term when he earned the support of several groupings within the pan-Shiite Iraqi National Alliance (INA). Al-Maliki can now count on 49 to 54 seats from the INA, in addition to the 89

On September 27, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conferred with her Syrian counterpart Walid Mouallem on the sidelines of a UN meeting in New York. And two weeks earlier, U.S. peace envoy George Mitchell met with President Bashar al-Asad in Damascus. This latest flurry of diplomatic activity seems aimed at

On the heels of renewed direct political negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported strong Palestinian economic growth at today's meeting of PA donors in New York. While these economic tidings will be welcomed by both Israelis and Palestinians and

It is no secret that Arab public opinion toward U.S. President Barack Obama has soured since his June 2009 speech in Cairo, Egypt. According to a slew of recent opinion polls, Arabs have been deeply disappointed with Obama's accommodations to Israel. Analysts have suggested that this discontent has caused Arabs

Unsurprisingly, the Hamas leadership -- both in Gaza and Damascus, and less so in the West Bank -- has greeted the resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian talks with a flood of contrarian rhetoric. Characterizing the process as a "sellout" of the Palestinian "cause," the movement argues that President Mahmoud Abbas lacks

This week, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak brought his son Gamal to Washington to attend the kick-off of renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Back in Cairo, the unprecedented family visit will no doubt reinforce the widespread belief that Mubarak is planning a hereditary succession in the Arab republic. It will also confirm

For nearly two weeks, the Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain has experienced near-daily disturbances following government arrests of opposition activists from the majority Shiite community. The timing of the arrests seemed geared toward preempting trouble in advance of the scheduled October 23 parliamentary and municipal elections, which minority Sunni

PolicyWatch 1693 is the second in a two-part series discussing U.S. military assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). This piece addresses the program's future direction, while PolicyWatch 1692 examined the context of the U.S. aid program. Since 2005, Washington has obligated more than $700 million in military assistance to