This article is part of a News-Decoder series of “decoders” that explain crucial background to big issues. For more decoders, click here. By Alistair Lyon Faith is often flaunted in the Middle East, but there are no angels here. One religiously-based state...
The region is energy-rich, torn by conflict and at the center of a struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran. All reasons why the blockade of Qatar matters. A container ship in Doha, Qatar, 14 June 2017. (EPA/Noushad thekkayil) The region holds about half of the...
By Alistair Lyon U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has casually hurled a diplomatic grenade into the Middle East. He has picked as his ambassador to Israel a fervent sponsor of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land and an enemy of any two-state solution to...
Five and a half years after its civil war erupted, Syria descends into the abyss as the world watches. What lessons can we draw from this tragedy? A Syrian man holding a girl surrounded by the rubble of houses destroyed by air strikes in Aleppo, Syria, 21 April 2014...
Yemen’s civil war has accelerated the collapse of a fragmented Arab state, but don’t hold your breath for international action to mitigate war horrors. A Yemeni woman strokes the arm of her malnourished infant, Sanaa, Yemen, 27 November 2014. (EPA/Yahya...