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As I was setting off for some conferences in the UK last April, I got an invitation from Tim Sebastian to come participate in the Doha Debates on April 29. Sebastian for years ran a hard hitting interview program on the BBC. More recently, he has hosted the Doha Debates in Qatar. The debates are […]

The bombings that shook Jaipur and killed 80 innocents are not immediately legible as ordinary politics. Most previous such bombings (Bombay, Hyderabad) have been in areas that have important Muslim minorities, or have been connected to separatist movements such as in Assam. Some appear to have been the work of Muslim radicals and intended as […]

As if Iraq was not enough to worry about, some important political developments in Lebanon, and even in the Yemen have raised the temperature of the Middle East . . . A roadside bomb targeted Abu Qutaiba, a local leader of an Awakening group a U.S. sponsored militia, in Al Lehaib area north east of […]

My column, “Clinton and Obama on Aljazeera,” is just out in Salon.com. It is based in part on an interview I did with the editor-in-chief of Aljazeera during my recent trip to Qatar. Excerpt: ‘ Many Americans incorrectly think of Al-Jazeera’s Arabic-language network as al-Qaida Central because it occasionally broadcasts excerpts from videotapes of the […]

AFP reports that on Friday an aide to junior cleric Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr lashed out at Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani over his silence at the attacks on Sadr City (a Shiite slum) by the US and the government of PM Nuri al-Maliki: ‘ “We are surprised by the silence in Najaf where the highest Shiite […]

The USG Open Source Center analyzes the Lebanese press on the crisis between the Seniora government and Hizbullah, suggesting that despite their harsh words, they have left wiggle room for a resolution. OSC Report: Lebanon — Both Sides Take Tough Line, Leave Room To ManeuverLebanon — OSC ReportFriday, May 9, 2008 . . . Lebanon […]

Irina Prentice writes from Beirut: Beirut Ramping Up Yesterday afternoon the political fight came to a head, turning to armed conflict throughout key neighborhoods in Beirut. Loud explosions, automatic machine gun fire, rocket propelled grenade, and pistol shots resounded throughout the night. The fight moved from a vicinity of half a kilometer from . . […]

On late Friday, the Lebanese army moved into some neighborhoods that had been taken during the day by the Hizbullah militia. Hizbullah routed Sunni militiamen loyal to Saad Hariri and set fire to the offices of al-Mustaqbal newspaper, his press outlet. (The Lebanese Army declined to intervene, the same mistake it made in 1975). Likewise, […]

Gary Sick, a political scientist at Columbia University and former National Security Council staffer under Carter and Reagan, writes: Hillary Clinton’s warning that the United States could “obliterate” Iran if that country should “foolishly consider” launching an attack on Israel is, of course, pandering to a broad American constituency that wants to hear tough rhetoric […]