World News Insights: Opinion Articles

In one of his memorable comments on the current state of Europe, the late Pope Francis expressed the wish that in a world gripped by turmoil and war the old continent becomes a field hospital for victims from the four corners of the globe. The comment implies that real or imagined victimhood…

Amir Taheri

Were the Lebanese really liberated on the 25th of May twenty-five years ago? The official answer has not changed: yes. The commemoration of this occasion and its elevation into a national holiday, “Resistance and Liberation Day” was born of this answer. The residents of the region that had been…

Hazem Saghieh

In mid-June, the Lebanese authorities will begin receiving weapons handed over by Palestinian factions operating in refugee camps, starting with the camps in Beirut and its southern suburbs. By implementing this decision, Lebanon will end a dangerous chapter of history that began in the aftermath…

Hanna Saleh

For fourteen years, the people of Syria waged a struggle to topple the criminal Bashar al-Assad, defeat Iran and its proxies (foremost among them Hezbollah), and break Russia’s link with Assad. They have been on the receiving end of Israeli strikes both before and after Assad’s fall. The new…

Tariq Al-Homayed

Camp David II ended in utter failure in 2000. However, what concerns us most, here, is how extremists’ campaigns undercut the talks and contributed to that failure. In addition to the fact that they were held during the last year of Clinton’s term, both Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat were outdoing…

Hazem Saghieh

The Palestinians, through their legitimate representatives, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian National Authority, have decided to disarm. In full cooperation with the legitimate Lebanese authorities, they are seeking to hand the Palestinian factions’ arms in the camps…

Nabil Amr

It would be a mistake to overlook the unique opportunities presented by the region’s shifting strategic landscape following the resounding success of President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. Until recently, this all seemed almost unimaginable, and seizing this opportunity…

Sam Menassa

Baghdad is relieved because it managed to avoid falling into several traps. Iraqi factions entertained the idea of expanding the conflict in wake of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation in Gaza and opening of the “support front” in Lebanon. However, internal advice and external warnings steered Iraq clear…

Ghassan Charbel

Last week, global and regional media outlets focused on President Donald Trump’s visit to Riyadh, Doha, and Abu Dhabi. Some of the piles of analysis we saw were objective and fact-based; others were fanciful and prejudiced. Some theories have now been shown to be misguided. One is the theory…

Mohammed al-Rumaihi

It has become common knowledge that Benjamin Netanyahu did not hesitate to mobilize the far right, in both its nationalist and religious wings, in a campaign against the Oslo Accords and Yitzhak Rabin. The latter was portrayed wearing the uniform of a Nazi officer in an infamous poster by this…

Hazem Saghieh

If you are under pressure to do something but know that you can’t do anything, what do you do? Well, you do nothing but to appear to be doing something you invoke grand principles and grand sentiments. This is what French President Emmanuel Macron and his Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot have…

Amir Taheri

It is difficult to get the Sudanese people to agree on any political question. Continuous debate, unending disputes, and entrenched polarization have long defined the Sudanese political landscape. That has been the case since Sudan gained its independence nearly seven decades ago at the latest. …

Osman Mirghani