Editor selections

Editor selections

Business A Lebanese citizen searches in the garbage for what can be collected to sell and provide a source of livelihood for his family (EPA)

Int’l Report Ranks Beirut’s Quality of Life Among the ‘Worst’ in the World

Lebanon’s catastrophic decline has considerably impacted the quality of life in the Mediterranean nation. The capital, Beirut, ranked 240 from among 242…

Ali Zeineddine (Beirut)
Business  The Saudi Minister of Housing conducts a visit to the National Housing Company to review the most important developments in achieving the goals of Vision 2023 (Asharq Al-Awsat)

KSA: More than 3,000 Real Estate Developers to Benefit from Support Program

The Saudi Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing announced a program targeting more than 3,000 real estate developers through a number of…

Asharq Al Awsat (Riyadh)
Business A street money exchanger counts banknotes at al-Kifah stock market in Baghdad on December 27, 2022 as the value of Iraqi dinar against US dollar drops further. (AFP)

Year 2022 Saw Erosion of Middle East National Currencies

The year 2022 witnessed an unprecedented decline in the exchange rates of a number of national currencies in some Middle Eastern countries, most notably Egypt,…

Features 30 December 2022, Syria, Idlib city: Syrians take part in a demonstration against potential rapprochement between Türkiye and the Syrian government, after the Russian, Syrian, and Turkish defense ministers met in Moscow on Wednesday for talks for the first time since the war broke out in Syria in 2011. (dpa)

Ten Challenges that Will Determine Syria’s Fate in 2023

Ten developments and files, both local and foreign, will determine the fate of Syria in 2023. The resolution of these files will have implications for years…

Ibrahim Hamidi (London)
Business The law is part of the system of improvements and development of the regulatory and legislative environment for the tourism sector. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Saudi Arabia Prepares Hospitality Facilities to Keep Pace with New Tourism Law 

Saudi Tourism Ministry officials intend to visit hospitality facilities in the Kingdom to develop and raise the level of services and safety they offer. This…

Bandar al-Mosalam (Riyadh)
Business Oman and Saudi Arabia are pushing to enhance integration and joint investment cooperation (SPA)

Upcoming Large Economic Projects to Link Saudi Arabia, Oman

Abdulsalam Al Murshidi, the executive president of the largest sovereign wealth fund of the Sultanate of Oman, has affirmed that economic ties between Oman and…

Merza al-Khuwaldi (Muscat)
Business Saudi Arabia tops regional countries in adopting advanced technologies, including virtual reality. (Asharq Al-Awsat) 

Saudi Arabia Aims to Attract Huge Investments in Virtual World 

Saudi Arabia is seeking to attract substantial global investments in advanced technologies, especially in NEOM.   A recent study indicated that the…

Fatehelrahman Yousif (Riyadh)
Features Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein gestures during his trial in Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 29, 2006. (AP)

The Day Saddam Hussein’s Corpse Was Laid in Front of Maliki’s Home 

Friday marked the 16th anniversary of the execution of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.  The death sentence did not come as a shock. But the events that…

Ghassan Charbel (London)
Features Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan meet on the sidelines of the 6th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA), in Astana, Kazakhstan October 13, 2022. (Reuters)

Normalization between Syria and Türkiye … Putin’s Gift to Erdogan

The Russian-sponsored Syrian-Turkish military meeting that was held in Moscow on Wednesday is the latest effort to achieve rapprochement between Ankara and…

Ibrahim Hamidi (London)
World Protesters clash with police after taking to the streets in Tehran in wake of the death of Mahsa Amini, September 21. (AFP)

Iran’s Protest Movement and the Future of the Regime

Since assuming power in 1989, Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei did not find any president agreeable to his desires and line of thought until Ebrahim Raisi,…

Features Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during his meeting with the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, in the presence of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi in Tehran in May 2022 (Syrian Presidency)

Iran Pressures Damascus on ‘Sovereign Concessions’

When Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited Tehran last May, one of the urgent requests he made was to send oil to contribute to resolving his country’s…

Ibrahim Hamidi (London)
World High school students remove the veil and raise the victory sign in Tehran last October (Twitter)

The Iranian Feminist Movement... Why and How?

In September, a girl named Mahsa was murdered by government agents. Her death was like throwing a lit match into a petrol tank. People took to the streets in…