Combative to the end, embattled Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh signed an agreement in Riyadh today that will see him transfer power to his vice president, launching a new chapter in a 10-month saga that has seen some 1,300 killed in near daily street clashes and tens of thousands wounded. With hands stiffened and deformed by …
arab uprisings
Israel Frets as Cairo Smolders and the Sinai Goes Qaeda
Imagine the tribal areas of Pakistan wedged snug against, say, Belgium instead of against Afghanistan. Next imagine that Belgium, usually so good about these sorts of details, hadn’t bothered to erect a border fence to at least try to keep the jihadis in their own yard. This is approximately the situation Israel suddenly faces with …
On Cairo’s Violent Streets, an Untenable Status Quo Meets an Unwritten Future
With reporting by Abigail Hauslohner / Cairo
“Say it, don’t be afraid: the military council has to leave,” chanted some of the tens of thousands of protesters who thronged Cairo’s Tahrir Square Tuesday night. Their slogan was a combative response to the junta’s plan, announced hours earlier in an unprecedented television address …
Tahrir Square Crisis Forces Egypt’s Military to Change its Plans
Tens of thousands of Egyptians are once again filling Cairo’s Tahrir Square in defiance of an authoritarian regime, and paying for their stand in blood and pain as security forces fire tear-gas, rubber bullets and even in some instances live ammunition. But the crowds are no longer chanting “The Army and the people are one hand!” as …
Egypt Bleeds as the Battle over Democracy and Power Escalates
The last time blood flowed so freely in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the battle lines were simple to discern: Last January’s showdown was a classic people vs. the regime battle to oust President Hosni Mubarak, with the Army stepping in at the crucial moment to ease out the strongman. But the ongoing battle for control of the Square that …
Storming Kuwait’s Parliament: What’s Behind the Latest Arab Revolt
The worldwide spread of protests this year may have started with the Arab spring, but when Kuwaiti demonstrators stormed their parliament on Wednesday, they appeared to be taking a page from the more theatric elements of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The protestors’ raid was brief. They called for the fall of the Prime …
The Whole World Watches Again: Occupy Wall Street Strikes Back
When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg authorized the city’s police force to move in and bring an end to the near two month occupation of Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, he struck at the symbolic heart of a movement that, through the sheer fact of its presence, captured the imagination of thousands around the world. Bloomberg …
The Syria Game of Thrones: Turkey vs. Iran vs. the Saudis in Battle to Shape a Rebellion’s Outcome
The Arab League called Wednesday for “urgent measures” to protect Syrian civilians in the face of violent repression by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. But lest anyone take that as an echo of the call that legitimized the NATO-led military operation in Libya, the League’s statement also rejected “all foreign intervention” …
Fayyad Reported Sidelined as a New Palestinian Political Era Emerges – Will Abbas Follow?
Once hailed by Western pundits as the technocrat-magician who would conjure a Palestinian state into being through irrepressible institutional competence, Salam Fayyad has been unceremoniously sidelined from his job as Palestinian Prime Minister according to a deal announced Tuesday — a sign of the collapse of the illusions …
Thwarted at the U.N., Is Palestinian Leader Abbas Headed Off Into the Sunset?
President Mahmoud Abbas’ attempt to persuade the U.N. Security Council to admit a state of Palestine as a full member of the international body has, all too predictably, hit a wall. The technical U.N. committee to which the issue was referred , not surprisingly, failed to reach a consensus (because there’s no consensus among Council …
Lessons for the Arab Spring from a Tiny Island Nation
With Tunisian elections just completed, Egypt’s parliamentary elections coming up and Libya veering into a dark new period, observers of the Arab Spring are wondering what will become of these revolutions once the euphoria subsides and the struggle over democracy grows apace.
There is one corner of South Asia where these questions …
Magic Kingdom: Is Qatar Too Good To Be True?
When something seems too good to be true, according to an old adage, it usually is. The announcement, Tuesday, by Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani that legislative council elections would be held in 2013 , without a push from protestors on the street, raises the question of what kind of dark skeletons lurk behind the …
Militia Mayhem Underscores Libya’s Power Vacuum, Threatening its Revolution
It’s hardly unexpected that a U.S. political-media culture that routinely repackages yesterday’s panicky improvisations as today’s established “doctrines” has seen many in Washington hail Libya as “the new model” for U.S. intervention abroad. With comparatively limited investment of Western treasure — and no troops on the ground, …