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Simmering differences between Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is still widely described as Yemen's president, and Khaled Bahah, the man he appointed as vice-president and prime minister, turned into an open rift yesterday when Hadi announced a cabinet reshuffle and Bahah rejected the changes… Read more
Magna Carta, Philip Hammond and the Saudi businessman
Did foreign secretary help sheikh meet the Queen?
Last summer Britain's foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, received a gift from a Saudi businessman – an Ebel watch priced at almost £2,000. Although government… Read more
Carole Samaha returns to GNRD
Lebanese singer backs mysterious rights organisation
Following the birth of her baby daughter in August, Lebanese singer/actress Carole Samaha has announced that she will be resuming "professional activities" in December and returning to… Read more
1. Because everyone else seems to be doing it
2. Because we are already bombing in Iraq
3. Because it looks bad if the French are doing it and we aren't
4. Because the Russians are doing it and we don't like… Read more
Last September Thomas Friedman of the New York Times wrote a column disputing the claim by a retired American general that Iranians are the world's leading "purveyors of radical Islam". That title, he said, belongs to America's friend, Saudi Arabia.
Friedman was right. There are plenty of… Read more
Later this week prime minister David Cameron will set out a new British strategy for Syria which is expected to include airstrikes on Syrian territory. Although Britain, as a member of the anti-ISIS coalition, is currently bombing in Iraq it is prevented from bombing in Syria because of a… Read more
'Sooni' versus Sunni
A case of linguistic power politics?
Does it matter if foreigners mis-pronounce Arabic names? The question was raised in a post on Facebook yesterday by Jonathan Wright, who spent many years working as a journalist in the Middle East and who has… Read more
Ashraf Fayyad (left): his ideas "do not suit Saudi society"
Ashraf Fayyad, a Palestinian poet and artist incarcerated in Saudi Arabia for the last two years, has now been sentenced to death for "questioning the Divine Self" (i.e. God), according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights… Read more
The Islamic State has issued a photograph showing parts of what it says was an explosive device that brought down the Russian airliner over Sinai on October 31 with the loss of 224 lives. IS also claims to have exploited a loophole at Sharm el-Sheikh airport to smuggle a bomb on board the plane… Read more
The cockpit voice recorder of the Russian airliner that crashed in Sinai is unlikely to settle the question of what caused the disaster that killed 224 people.
According to Ayman al-Muqaddam, the chief Egyptian investigator, a "noise" can be heard in the final second of the recording. Muqaddam… Read more
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
