The Middle East articles from January 2008

The Middle East archives from January 2008

Comment.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Talibans and Afghanistan)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WITH AFGHAN TROOPS ousting the Taliban from the strategic southern town of Musa Qala, backed by Nato forces last month, a new western initiative has begun--to bolster the beleaguered regime of President Hamid Karzai....

Spy fever: a shadowy multi-faceted intelligence war intensifies in a region where intrigue and espionage have long been part of the everyday political fabric. Ed Blanche reports from Beirut.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] RARELY HAS THE Middle East seen such a frenzy of activity by the region's pervasive intelligence services. The undercurrents of military preparation for the possibility of a cluster of new wars erupting or existing...

The Iraqi pressure cooker.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(iraqi refugees and the humanitarian crisis )
January 1, 2008... WHILE WESTERN MEDIA and political groups debate the issue of whether or not there is a civil war in Iraq, for millions of Iraqis forced to leave their homes and take on the status of refugees, the matter is irrelevant. Iraq's refugee crisis,...

Divisions among the divided: Mel Frykberg reports from the Occupied Territories.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Arab-Israeli conflicts and peace talks)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] APPROXIMATELY 100 DEMONSTRATORS braved the cold and the biting wind to gather in the centre of Ramallah. As they raised their placards, decrying the Annapolis Conference, the latest round of Middle East peace talks...

Shifting sands.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Shi'ite resurgence and political shifts)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE THREAT OF a Shi'ite resurgence, as soon-to-be nuclear Iran extends its influence into Iraq, has triggered what could well be one of the most important and far-reaching political shifts in the region. Israel...

Salafist splits: Al Qaeda plans to establish a new network across the Maghreb are threatened by growing fracture within Algerian core group.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
January 1, 2008... THE RECENT UPSURGE in jihadist attacks across North Africa, particularly the revival of terrorist attacks in the region's urban centres and the growing use of suicide bombers, underlines how Al Qaeda is steadily expanding its influence in the...

The 27th GCC Summit: and guess who came to dinner?(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad )(Gulf Cooperation Council)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE LONG-AWAITED COMMON market among the six nation-strong Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, will finally be launched this month following the...

Kurdish powder keg: Turkish and Iranian military moves against Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq threaten to ignite a wider conflict in the Middle East.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN RECENT MONTHS, the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan have become the potential flashpoint in a powder keg region that is teetering on the brink of a major conflagration between Iran and the United States, which could...

Pakistani profiles.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Country overview)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With shared borders with Iran and Afghanistan, Pakistan, with its 97% Muslim population, occupies a key strategic location in relation to the Middle East and also enjoys close cultural and economic links with the...

Stability: the golden key to a dazzling decade of development: the Arab world is in the midst of a spectacular transition, as reflected in growing integration both within the region and globally. As we enter the New Year, economic analyst Moin Siddiqi examines the potential and the possible pitfalls.(INTO 2008)
January 1, 2008... 2007 PROVED ANOTHER year of brisk activity for the energy-rich Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, led encouragingly by the non-hydrocarbons sectors and higher private capital inflows, but growth performance continues to reflect big...

Piped options for Egypt.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)(oil and gas industry)
January 1, 2008... THE FORTUNES OF the Egyptian oil and gas sector have been turned around over the past few years. Oil production has not fallen as quickly as expected and new discoveries seem a distinct possibility, while high international oil prices have...

Fuelling the Peoples' Republic: with the veracious appetite of its booming economy, Beijing is looking to Africa, Latin America and Central Asia to diversify its energy supplies, but the Middle East remains the target market, supplying 58% of China's energy imports according to a 2007 report by global management consulting and technology services company Accenture.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)
January 1, 2008... THE ATTACKS OF 11 September 2001 in the United States nailed home the urgent need to secure reliable energy flows, with China's national energy giants seeking to acquire equity stakes in overseas energy projects. While spurring the Chinese to...

Beyond the nuclear debate.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] INTERNATIONAL INTEREST IN the Iranian energy sector tends to focus on two areas: opposition to the country's nuclear programme, which Tehran claims will be solely used for power generation purposes; and oil and gas...

Gas prices: heading for a record?(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)
January 1, 2008... WHILE MUCH OF the world's attention last autumn was focused on the apparently relentless rise in the price of crude oil, energy experts were also looking at the other carbon-based fuel that is increasingly in demand in the world's main...

Blue sky thinking at Oman Air: as Oman Air inaugurated its first direct flight to London, CEO Ziad bin Karim Al Haremi told The Middle East the sky is the limit in the exciting new phase the national carrier has entered.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] THE INAUGURATION OF Oman Air's first direct flight to Europe (Muscat-London) marked an important milestone in the Sultanate's aviation history and also in its fast growing tourism industry. Following its...

Turkish port reform back on track.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)
January 1, 2008... SUCCESSIVE TURKISH GOVERNMENTS have sought to sell off state owned assets but their efforts have been more successful in some industries than others. The port sector privatisation programme originally proved particularly problematic, but many...

From inside an Israeli prison.(MOSAIC)(Biography)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] AMIRA HASS'S LIFE followed a predestined course. "I was a red diaper baby," she says in the cafeteria of Confluence, the Paris cultural centre where a new twist has been added to her life. The Haaretz journalist,...

Falconry comes into its own.(MOSAIC)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] AS THE GULF emirates have grown into major financial and trading centres, the desire by their prominent citizens to preserve the best of Arab culture has resulted in increased investment in the sport of falconry. ...

Lebanon's civil society movement.(MOSAIC)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A LITTLE-REPORTED TREND THAT has emerged in Lebanon over the past couple of years; one after another, a raft of new civil society organisations has sprung up. Started by young, dynamic people, many with no previous...

"From Damascus Gate take the 54 bus to the Shawamreh grocery store: then ask for Salim": this is the way to Belt Arabeia: a low, white, single-roomed house on a hillside in the West Bank village of Anata. It is a place of astonishing quiet: pomegranate, lemon and plum trees grow in the small garden, jasmine and rosemary curl about the house.(MOSAIC)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] FOR SALIM, THE quiet means something else: "This is the graveyard of demolished houses," he says, pointing at the pile of bricks and rubble outside the garden fence. Israeli bulldozers have demolished Beit...

Ottoman Administration of Iraq, 1890-1908.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] OTTOMAN ADMINISTRATION OF IRAQ, 1890-1908 By Gokhan Cetinsaya published by Routledge. ISBN 0 415 34158 2 price 60.00 [pounds sterling] hardback What is today known as Iraq has, throughout history, been composed...

The Axis of Evil: Iran, Hizballah, and the Palestinian Terror.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE AXIS OF EVIL IRAN, HIZBALLAH, AND THE PALESTINIAN TERROR By Shaul Shay published by Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0 76580255 4 price 28.45 [pounds sterling] hardback The Axis of Evil deals extensively with...

Secularism and the Arab World: (1850-1939).(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SECULARISM AND THE ARAB WORLD (1850-1939) BY NAZIK SABA YARED published by Saqi. ISBN 0 86356 393 7 price 35.00 [pounds sterling] hardback Secular Arabic thought is not a novelty, despite the religious and...

New Flavours of the Lebanese Table.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] NEW FLAVOURS OF THE LEBANESE TABLE By Nada Saleh published by Ebury Press. ISBN 0 0919 1724 1 price 12.00 [pounds sterling] paperback The food of Lebanon has long been rated as one of the great cuisines of the...

Power, Politics and Religion in Timurid Iran.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] POWER, POLITICS AND RELIGION IN TIMURID IRAN By Beatrice Forbes Manz published by Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0 521 86547 6 price 55.00 [pounds sterling] hardback Beatrice Forbes Manz uses the history of...

Condoleezza Rice: Naked Ambition.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CONDOLEEZZA RICE NAKED AMBITION By Marcus Mabry published by Gibson Square. ISBN 978 1 9061 4203 2 price 20.00 [pounds sterling] hardback Perhaps no American leader is better known and less understood than...

The last word.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(British teacher Gillian Gibbons case on insulting religion in Khartoum, Sudan)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Last month, British teacher Gillian Gibbons was sentenced to 15 days in prison by a court in Khartoum after being found 'guilty of insulting religion' because her class of seven-year-old children named a teddy bear...