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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By Reza JFearing unrest and anti-government demonstrations similar to those after the 2009 election, the Iranian regime began cracking down on journalists and political activists this January. Arrests and newspaper bans are a normal part of a journalist’s life in Iran. It was always like this, even before the 1979 Revolution. However, since the controversial re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, media freedom has degraded significantly in Iran, which ranks 174th out of 179 countries on the 2013 Press Freedom Index. In recent months, the government has arrested ten journalists in a single night, raided newspaper offices, broken down the doors of journalists' homes, and arrested them...
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Dubai / Sheikh Mohammed Ben Rashid Al-Makhtoum / trade / Finance & Economics / Focus Article / Arts & Culture / Middle EastThe ruler of the Emirate of Dubai has created a model city — a near fantasy land that rightly features many aspects of a global village. Calling Dubai a miracle in its current unique example of an open and modern international city, would not be too far-fetched. The transformation of the small Gulf locality — drenched with the generally inhospitable sweat and dust of the desert — into a coveted international tourist destination in just a few decades is a miracle by all counts. It is an incredible feat for a desert locality to spring to world attractiveness in a mind-boggling short time span. With its countless tourists, Dubai is often comparable to culturally rich...
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360° Analysis / Ahmadinejad / Iran / Israel / Nuclear / Politics / President Obama / Sanctions / United Kingdom / United States / Europe / Middle East / Global SecurityAmbassador Peter Jenkins analyzes the complexities of the Iranian nuclear dispute in light of the recent talks in Kazakhstan and evaluates the chances for progress. Readers who recall that four years ago a new US President seemed eager to defuse the West’s quarrel with Iran over its nuclear activities may wonder why we are all still waiting for white smoke. I am not sure I know the answer, but I have a hunch it has something to do with a lack of realism on one side and a profound mistrust on the other. The lack of realism is a Western failing. The US and the two European states, France and the UK, that still have the most influence on the EU’s Iran policy, ten years after the...
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360° Analysis / Iraq / Media / Politics / Richard Perle / War / Middle East / Global SecurityAmerican media failed to fulfill its role during the lead-up to the American invasion of Iraq. Al-Sharif Nassef argues that American “Big Media” must be held accountable for its part in selling the Bush administration’s Iraq war agenda. Too often “Big Media” shies away from the more trialing debates that make us challenge the status quo or rethink popularly accepted narratives. Either the media’s analytical lens is waning, or it too is easily duped by our government administrations’ agendas. Either way, with its lack of skepticism, the American mass media failed its duty to the American public, as it helped the Bush administration sell the Iraq war...
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Argentina / Iran / Jewish-Argentina Mutual Association / Politics / President Kirchner / Focus Article / Middle East / AmericasArgentina and Iran agreed to establish a “truth commission” aimed at analyzing responsibility for the 1994 attacks on a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The rapprochement, however, follows a larger rationale, argue Shawn VL and Giorgio Cafiero. Iran’s alleged role in the 1994 attack on the Jewish-Argentina Mutual Association (AMIA) community center in Buenos Aires was followed by eighteen years of tense relations between Argentina and Iran. Earlier this year, however, Argentine and Iranian officials agreed to establish a “truth commission” pertaining to the terrorist attack that killed 85 people, which indicates that Argentine-Iranian relations have...
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360° Analysis / Independence / Iraq / military / Politics / Middle EastWhen international relief organizations followed General Tommy Franks into Iraq in March of 2003, they scattered to different parts of Iraq. One of them, Mercy Corps, landed in Kut, south-central Iraq, an area which is predominantly Shia. They immediately started to recruit local staff and Tall Mohammad was among them. The “Tall” was affixed to distinguish him from other staff with the same name. Now, ten years later, he has written a recollection of this historic event. Shortly after the American troops and the coalition forces - together with the support of many Iraqis - had defeated one of the cruelest tyrants of the Middle East in the twentieth century, I felt...
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Economics / Global Piracy / Gulf of Aden / Gulf of Guinea / Horn of Africa / Piracy / Pirates / Politics / Somalia / United States / Europe / Finance & Economics / 360° Context / Middle East / Africa / Global Security / OceaniaMaritime Piracy is bleeding the global economy and fostering political instability on the eastern and western shores of Africa more gravely than we realise. Re-emergence of maritime piracy, one of the world’s oldest crimes, in the past decade has grown into a serious global security concern alongside terrorism and religious extremism. Rising number of attacks in recent years on merchant vessels to seize goods and hostages in exchange for ransoms running in millions of dollars has prompted an urgent concerted international naval campaign to protect arterial sea routes and shipping lanes. Earlier maritime robbery was mostly confined to hotspots around Malacca Strait, South China Sea,...
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360° Analysis / al-Qaeda / AQAP / Drones / Global Security / Pakistan / Politics / United States / United States / Yemen / Middle East / Global Security / AsiaBy Bilal AhmedDestabilisation in Yemen and Pakistan is tipping the scale in the wrong direction for the US drone warfare policy. A highly controversial element of the war on terrorism, drones have led to troubling circumstances in both Pakistan and Yemen. Even as the US painstakingly sought to eliminate terror networks employing the smartest piece of its military technology over the past years, Washington’s high-frequency drone strike strategy has not only further destabilized both countries, ironically it has also aided a fresh spurt of anti-American terrorist outfits now threatening its security and national interests more than ever. Drone strikes have become a staple of the new American century...
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360° Analysis / EU / Human Rights / Iran / Islamic Republic / Politics / Sanctions / United States / Europe / Finance & Economics / Middle EastBy Nabi SonboliSanctions imposed on Iran by the United States and the European Union violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, thus undermining the legitimacy of the measures and their originators. Multilateral and unilateral economic sanctions imposed on Iran are contrary to the principle of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration begins with the preamble that “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” As we see in the following, economic sanctions seriously undermine freedom, democracy, justice and peace both inside the targeted...