Many things have changed since the departure of Jeremy Corbyn’s populist Leftist leadership of the British Labor Party, in 2020; following its crushing electoral defeat in 2019. Neutral observers and rational party members had expected such an outcome. Labor’s share of the vote dropped to 32% -…

The last few days, the Middle East witnessed two visits by two senior Iranian and American officials, as well as Iraq’s general elections. But if the nature of the visit of Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was clear and widely mentioned in the media, I can claim no knowledge of the…

Somehow, one may say that few regional and international powers did not “contribute” to the formation of the new Lebanese cabinet. However, this cabinet is nothing more than a “crisis management team”. Its task is to deal with a problem whose solution would be an inseparable part of the much larger…

Nothing in my life fills me with shame more than the fact that I have never visited Iraq! This is a cause of sadness, pain, regret and unrivalled sense of loss; and why not, if Iraq was part of me and my family’s history even before I was born. Impressed by Iraq (where he lived for 10 years)…

Within few hours both Herat and Kandahar fell to the Taliban. The fall of Afghanistan’s third and second most populous cities, respectively, meant that the fate of the capital Kabul would not be different. As expected, the first reaction from the major Western powers, which had troops and…

It is understandable that foreign dignitaries and officials would attend the swearing-in ceremony of a UN member state’s president, as what happened during the swearing-in ceremony of Ebrahim Raisi as President of Iran. This is normal practice, regardless with those guests are from friendly…

What ever happened within a few months that made it possible to overcome the obstacles preventing the formation of a new Lebanese cabinet? Is it possible that compassion just happened to overwhelm the previously cruel hearts, so they reacted positively to the pain of the hungry and the sick who are…

When dealing with politics, and understanding the mechanism of ‘trial and error’, a political analyst needs to be cynical; more so, when politicians preach morality. There is nothing more dangerous than when politicians justify their interests with ethical standards, and nothing more worrying than…

Whether Lebanon’s Prime Minister designate Saad Hariri is ‘the man of the moment’ or not, or whether the demise of Lebanon is a ‘landmark’ in the series of Arab collapses or not; these matters mean little in the calculations of major world powers, including those of the G7. The G7 world powers’…

Whenever I can, I take a look at the Lebanese press; and these days I find it necessary to read what the poor Lebanese are suffering under incessant lectures about “patriotism” and “achievements”, as well as floods of “exclusives” and “deep analyses”. Among both the leading qualities and faults…