Middle East
Middle East
Fair Observer provides inclusive, insightful and contextual analysis of the Middle East with its manifold cultures and civilizations.
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360° Analysis / United States / Europe / Middle East / Global Security / Asia / OceaniaDespite their rarity, the potential economic fallout of maritime incidents makes them severe threats. Compared with land-based incidents, maritime terrorism represents a very small percentage of overall terrorist attacks. In 2003, the Aegis Research and Intelligence Database estimated between 1999 and 2003 that maritime targets represented less than one percent of all terrorist attacks. A similar analysis of the RAND terrorism database supports these figures; of the 40,126 terrorist incidents recorded between 1968 and 2007, only 136 (0.34%) were against the maritime domain. Not only are the maritime numbers very low, but maritime terrorist incidents of any significance have also not...
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The failure of the US to honour the key basis of the Istanbul negotiations, highlights the absence of goodwill in resolving the standoff with Iran. The Oxford Research Group’s (ORG) briefing, Iran’s Nuclear Impasse: Breaking the Deadlock, published before the second round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 in Baghdad on May 23, proposed some positive principles for a successful outcome of the negotiations. However, it suffers serious drawbacks, which have become more clearly highlighted with the result of the recent Moscow negotiations. At the conclusion of the third round of talks between Iran and P5+1, the initial optimism about the resolution of the stand-off between Tehran...
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This article is part 5 of a multi-part series exploring Tripoli, Lebanon. The series is based on Nicholas A. Heras’ extensive experiences in the city between 2006 and 2011, and the continuing lessons its residents have given him. This is the fifth of seven parts. Tripoli is a city of hope for more than just the residents who live within its boundaries. Many of the city’s daily visitors live in the nearby Akkar. This area to Tripoli’s immediate north, stretches 398 square miles from the Mediterranean coast to the Lebanese border with the Tartus Governorate in Syria, and east to its border with Syria’s Homs Governorate. Generally an underdeveloped and seemingly...
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360° Analysis / Politics / Europe / BRIC / Middle East / Global SecurityRussia supports Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for historic, economic and strategic reasons. The United Nations estimates that, since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011, as many as 15,000 people have lost their lives. Unlike the 1982 Hama massacre, when Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez, brutally put down a Muslim Brotherhood uprising that saw 10,000 to 40,000 people killed, the current conflict in Syria has gathered enormous global attention. Those outraged by Russia’s opposition to military intervention in Syria tend to lose track of the ties between the two countries that stem from the Cold War. When, after World War II, the Soviet Union and the US emerged as the dominant...
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World soccer body FIFA president Sepp Blatter alongside FIFpro, the global organization of professional soccer players, football legend Eric Cantona, film director Ken Loach, MIT professor Noam Chomsky and former United Nations Palestine rapporteur John Dugard have denounced Israel’s detention of Palestinian soccer players, including Mahmoud Sarsak who has been on hunger strike in Israeli prison for the past 86 days. In a June 12 letter to Israel Football Association president Avi Luzon, Mr. Blatter expressed concern that Mr. Sarsak and two other Palestinian players were being “illegally” detained “in apparent violation of their integrity and human rights and without...
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A leading human rights group has joined the international trade union movement in using Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup to pressure the energy-rich Gulf state to bring migrant labor conditions in line with international standards and allow for the emergence of independent trade unions that can engage in collective bargaining. At the launch of a 146-page report, "Building a better World Cup: Protecting migrant workers," Human Rights Watch joined the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in rejecting Qatari moves to fend off a global campaign calling for a boycott of Qatar and stripping its right to host the tournament because of migrant labor...
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A brief look at the modern history of Libya as the country gears up for its first post-Qaddafi election. Background The North African country of Libya gained its independence in 1951 following 40 years of Italian colonial rule. Under Italian control, Libya was divided into three provinces: Cyrenaica, Tripolitania, and Fezzan. During both World Wars, resistance to Italian occupation and rule was led by Idris al-Mahdi as-Senussi, the Emir of Cyrencaica. Between 1943 and 1951, the British administered Tripolitania and Cyrenaica while Fezzan was under French control. The UN General Assembly, meanwhile, passed a resolution in 1949 stating Libya should become independent before the start of 1952...
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A look at the political issues surrounding Libya’s first post-Qaddafi election and the varying agendas of each of the main parties. Lenin once noted that “Sometimes decades pass and nothing happens, and then sometimes weeks pass and decades happen”; an observation that appears tailored to Libya's recent history, with events of future historical significance becoming a weekly occurrence since February 2011. Although the dust has now settled on the battlefields, Libya is still suffering from the wide-ranging problems from the recent conflict. The incompetence of the National Transitional Council (NTC) in dealing with these problems, the fast thinning patience of the...
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The Libyan people are eagerly awaiting their first election since the revolution and overthrow of their former dictator. On July 7, a momentous event in Libya's history will take place; the first national election since 1952 and the first one open to the entire Libyan populace. Strangely for an event of such significance, little has been mentioned in the media barring the occasional recognition of it being Libya’s first major step to democracy after 42 years of dictatorial despair. Indeed, there has been no shortage of news and discussion regarding the sporadically skirmishing militias, the east's fomenting federalists, and Libya’s general slide into either anarchy or...