Ghassan Charbel
Editor-in-Chief of Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper

When the Czar Calls for You 

With a bit of drowsiness and some fatigue. That is how extraordinary meetings are concluded. How wonderful it is for the world to be preoccupied with you! How it monitors your every move and your armored train. How journalists rush to come up with exaggerations and absurd scenarios. How…

Pictures from the G20 Summit

The features of the future of the world are not drawn in the corridors of the United Nations headquarters in New York. They are drawn on other tables... the table of the Group of Seven industrialized countries... the BRICS, and before that at the G20 summit. The leaders of the most powerful…

Africa... Beware the Republican Guard 

The president has the right to sleep at ease. What more do the people want? He threw himself into the fire to save them. Forget about the grudges of journalists and social media users. The interests of the opposition that only care about pouncing on the feats. Forget about poverty, unemployment and…

The Digger of Mines and Graves 

In 1961, the beautiful city of St. Petersburg committed a grave sin. It gave birth to a poor child with a great appetite. The poor boy did not know his father, who had died young. He banked on skiing as a way to meet his ambitions, but he never really took off. As a teenager, he turned into a…

A Window of Stability in a Stormy Sea 

The Middle East has wasted decades – if not more – of the lives of its people. They were squandered when the region fell victim to coups, interventions and fear. Policies that are obsessed with victory and making others yield to them, while ignoring the pressing need for stability. Wealth was…

The Beginnings of a Painful World

My friend told me: “Don’t waste your time chasing after news of politicians or booking interviews with them. Their role in forging the future of the world is over. Governments, arsenals and fleets no longer have the final say. The future of the world is now being shaped in laboratories.” …

Jeddah’s Ukrainian Appointment

The participants at the Jeddah meeting on Ukraine were aware that they discussed a crisis that the world hasn’t seen in decades. The crisis has embroiled Europe and another major power. The West has gone to great lengths to prevent Russia from claiming victory. Both sides of the conflict don’t have…

Lebanon, the Ancestors and the Grandchildren 

The politician said: “I can feel the pain, so as not to call it humiliation. A country mired in poverty and anarchy, where emigration steals its best young men, is awaiting the return of Macron’s envoy in September in the hope that he will succeed in persuading the political forces to elect a…

Xi, Kissinger... and Putin

Most men borrow their worth from their offices, powers, seals, and privileges. That’s why they become empty-handed when they lose everything. Some men reflect their own luster on their offices, which lose their glint when their occupants leave. There are men who are bigger than their posts…

The Suitcase Exploded and Changed Yemen's Features

Working closely with a powerful leader, be it Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, or Ali Abdullah Saleh, is no walk in the roses. But the rewards are undeniable. It provides you with protection that even constitutions, which often serve the leader's interests, cannot offer. It grants you influence…