World News Insights: Opinion Articles

The trilateral meeting between Russia, Türkiye, and Syria may have been the most significant event towards the end of 2022. Iran did not take part in the discussions on this sensitive strategic matter. This meeting was not without preludes but was rather preceded by several meetings and statements,…

There are phrases that as a student of history in the making I never thought I would read let alone write. Now, however, such a phrase is in full circulation and I feel no qualms about repeating it: Benjamin Netanyahu is a moderate politician! The “comeback kid” of Israeli politics certainly cuts a…

The questions in the US about the country’s “historical” relationship with Israel have not gone as far as forcing Washington to radically and comprehensively rethink its deep ties with Tel Aviv, which is unlike any of the United States’ relationships with another country. Talk on how the costs…

The great. The giant. The wonder. Stature... And decades ago, we used to say: “The prince of the poets,” “the prince of eloquence,” “the landmark scholar,” and “the understander of understanders”... Anyone who stands out in a profession or the role he plays, especially in the arts, the media, and…

“What are Putin’s red lines?” This question, asked with growing urgency as Russia loses its war in Ukraine but does not relent in its aggressions, is intended to offer analytical clarity and to guide policy. In reality, it is the wrong question, because “red line” is a bad metaphor. Red lines…

In 2007, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended the Gulf Cooperation Council Summit (28) for the first time. It was held in Doha, and Qatar had invited him to be the guest of honor. During the summit, one picture drew particularly strong attention. It was a picture of the late…

It is difficult for anyone following the celebrations of the new year in Saudi Arabia to believe what they see is happening in the Kingdom. In the capital alone, the Trio Talent concert in Mohammed Abdo Arena (a Riyadh Season event) saw 12 music artists of both genders from across the Arab world…

I wrote a book in praise of failure, which is like a fish praising water. I’ve been swimming in failure for as long as I can remember — even before that. Quite a lot of who we are, what we do and especially what we cannot do is determined well before we are born, by history, geography, the rise and…

Perhaps the main headline in 2022 was the Russian forces’ entry to Ukraine. Few had imagined the war would come back knocking on Europe’s doors, several decades after the last bullet of WWII was fired in May 1945. Unless resolved, belligerently or peacefully, the war will be the compass this year,…

I shall introduce my article by quoting this sentence from the Western media. It paves the way for much of what I would like to say. “As the world plunges into crisis, Saudi Arabia seems set to become a modern superpower.” As some had been betting on the imminent downfall of the Kingdom and its…

What would it be like to be so ashamed of your life that you felt compelled to invent a new one? Most of us don’t feel compelled to do that. Most of us take the actual events of our lives, including the failures and frailties, and we gradually construct coherent narratives about who we are…

Two weeks ago, the Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey passionately advocated in a blog post the view that neither Twitter nor the government nor any other company should exert control over what participants post. “It’s critical,” he said, “that the people have tools to resist this, and that those tools…