The Middle East articles from February 2002

The Middle East archives from February 2002

Afghanistan: new beginnings? (Current Affairs).(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... Things should be getting back to normal in Afghanistan -- the Taliban has been ousted, a new interim prime minister, Hamid Karzai, has been installed and aid is starting to trickle through. Indeed, things are getting back to normal, or what...

Fatah -- a party for the taking. (Current Affairs).(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... As more and more question marks emerge over the future of Yasser Arafat's leadership, the existence of a younger and more radical group of Palestinian activists belonging to his Fatah party, has been acknowledged by both Palestinian analysts...

Anglo-Iran diplomacy falters: Adel Darwish reports on the latest diplomatic brouhaha between London and Tehran. (Current Affairs).
February 1, 2002... Pity President Mohammed Khatami, whenever he steps forward on the road of improving relations with the rest of the world, he discovers that the elastic attached to his cloak and controlled by the hardline Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is painfully...

Saddam's Gulag: behind the scenes in Iraq oppression and fear continue unabated as the population struggle under the double yoke of UN-imposed economic sanctions and the repressive regime of Saddam Hussein. (Current Affairs).
February 1, 2002... Every day, Iraqis are dying in Saddam Hussein's death camps, their tortured, mutilated bodies dumped in unmarked mass graves, or shipped back to their families in rough wooden coffins as a warning of the fate that awaits those who oppose the...

Israel's nuclear arsenal. (Current Affairs).
February 1, 2002... In the aftermath of the devastating attacks on the United States, Israel is reexamining its nuclear arsenal and wondering whether the events of 11 September have eroded the state's ability to deter Islamic extremists and others from launching...

More questions than answers. (Current Affairs).(War on Terrorism, 2001-)
February 1, 2002... The question of whether or not the military action currently being taken in Afghanistan is morally justified is one that can never be satisfactorily answered. A person's stance on this depends very much on his background, personal experience,...

Can Turkey make 2002 winners out of 2001 losers? (Current Affairs).
February 1, 2002... With the widespread realisation that if an election were to be held in Turkey today, quite possibly none of the existing parties would win any seats, the year 2001 is unlikely to go down as a golden year for any of Turkey's battered political...

Arab banks profits set to soar: despite much uncertainty in the international money markets following the event of 11 September, Gulf banks, are poised to enjoy a period of health growth. (Business & Finance) (Cover Story).(Cover Story)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... Despite the ongoing regional geopolitical instabilities following the US-led war on terrorism, the Arab financial system remains basically healthy. Profits at some of the region's top-tier institutions are set to soar, according to some...

Will the pact revive the market? Moin A Siddiqi analyses the world oil market situation in the light of the recent deal between OPEC and non-OPEC states. (Business & Finance).(Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... On 1 January, the Middle Eastern dominated Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which controls over two-thirds of world oil exports, ratified an unprecedented deal in Cairo with five non-OPEC rivals, to remove nearly two...

Central Asian states woo investors: Pamela Ann Smith reports on an anticipated upturn in investor activity in the Central Asian states following the announcement of a massive aid injection into neighbouring Afghanistan. (Business & Finance).
February 1, 2002... Foreign investment and trade in the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the Kyrgyz Republic is expected to increase dramatically in the wake of the huge global aid programme being planned for Afghanistan and the region. The...

Arab investment in Sudan's oil increases. (Business & Finance).(Asian gas and oil firms)
February 1, 2002... Matthias Muindi reports from Nairobi For western oil firms, Sudan's nascent oil industry is a plague many feel should be avoided. With powerful human rights lobbyists at home calling for disinvestment by shareholders and threats by the US...

Can Gulf aviation weather the storm? (Business & Finance).(World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks, 2001)
February 1, 2002... Shilpa Mathai reports from Muscat As the aviation industry worldwide navigates stormy weather, how does the downturn in air travel augur for the Gulf's regional air carriers that, even pre-11 September, were already experiencing financial...

Pipeline dreams? Jon Gorvett reports on the return to life of one of the region's oldest, post-Soviet chestnuts, the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline. (Business & Finance).
February 1, 2002... Dismissed as a billion dollar white elephant, a politically motivated project that made no business sense, it might come as a surprise to some to learn that the engineering study on where to lay the pipe is underway, the political structure is...

The Sand Kings of Oman: The Experiences of an RAF Officer in Trucial Oman. (Book reviews: books in brief).
February 1, 2002... THE SAND KINGS OF OMAN THE EXPERIENCES OF AN RAF OFFICER IN TRUCIAL OMAN By Raymond O'Shea published by Kegan Paul International ISBN 0 7103 0675 x price 65.00 [pound sterling] hardback This book is a factual account of the experiences of...

Israel at the Polls 1999. (Book reviews: books in brief).
February 1, 2002... ISRAEL AT THE POLLS 1999 Editors: Daniel J Elazar and M Ben Mellow published by Frank Cass ISBN 0 7146 5168 0 price 42.50 [pound sterling] hardback ISBN 0 7146 8180 6 price 16.50 [pound sterling] paperback The 1999 Israeli elections focused...

Two Hours that Shook the World: September 11, 2001: Causes and Consequences. (Book reviews: books in brief).
February 1, 2002... TWO HOURS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: CAUSES & CONSEQUENCES By Fred Halliday published by Saqi Books ISBN 0 86356 3821 price 12.95 [pound sterling] paperback As the dust settled around the devastation of the World Trade Centre...

Classic Palestinian Cookery. (Book reviews: books in brief).
February 1, 2002... CLASSIC PALESTINIAN COOKERY By Christiane Dabdoub Nasser published by Saqi Books ISBN 0 86356 548 4 price 14.95 [pound sterling] paperback Traditional Palestinian cuisine offers a rich variety of dishes characteristic of the eastern regions...

Political Culture in Libya. (Book reviews: books in brief).
February 1, 2002... POLITICAL CULTURE IN LIBYA By Arnal Obeidi published by CURZON ISBN 07007 1229 1 price 50.00 [pounds sterling] hardback There have been few studies of Arab countries that have dealt with political culture and political socialisation or...

Troubled Waters: The Geopolitics of the Caspian Region. (Book reviews: books in brief).
February 1, 2002... TROUBLED WATERS THE GEOPOLITICS OF THE CASPIAN REGION By R Hrair Dekmejian and Hovann H Simonian Published by IB TAURIS ISBN 1 86064 639 5 price 39.50 [pounds sterling] hardback Once the landlocked backwater between Iran and the Soviet...

Reflections on Exile and Other Literary and Cultural Essays. (Book reviews: books in brief).
February 1, 2002... REFLECTIONS ON EXILE AND OTHER LITERARY AND CULTURAL ESSAYS Edward W Said published by Granta Books ISBN 1 86207 444 5 price 20.00 [pounds sterling] paperback This long-awaited collection brings together Edward Said's essays on...

Globalization in World History. (Book reviews: books in brief).
February 1, 2002... GLOBALIZATION IN WORLD HISTORY Edited by AG Hopkins published by PIMLICO ISBN 0 7126 7740 2 price 12.50 [pounds sterling] paperback Globalisation was the buzzword of the 1990s; it promises to become even more important in the first...

Laila Shawa: still shaking people up: Lawrence Joffe talks to the Palestine-born artist whose work forms part of the British Museums collection, Laila Shawa. (Mosaic).(Critical Essay)
February 1, 2002... Born the daughter of a wealthy family in Gaza, Laila Shawa was eight years old when the state of Israel was declared. Gaza's population quadrupled virtually overnight. Cramped refugee camps were established which eventually became permanent...

A new era of openness? (Mosaic).(anti-American press in Egypt)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Andrew Hammond reports from Cairo In Egypt it's a Nasserist-era television presenter, not a mosque preacher or a subversive sheikh, who is leading opposition to American's new war on terrorism. Hamdy Qandil has shot to fame over the last...

Turkish cinema turns a corner. (Mosaic).(Kurds represented in motion pictures)(Critical Essay)
February 1, 2002... Jon Gorvett and N Buket Cengiz report from Istanbul It is 28 years since the word "Kurdistan" was shown, scrawled across a wall in director Yilmaz Guney's classic film, Yol -- a scene which promptly got the film banned from Turkish cinema...