Middle East & North Africa Archive

Making predictions is a famously perilous pursuit. It doesn’t take a great deal of courage, however, to forecast which story will be the biggest of the coming year, the one that will dominate the news in 2008: the election of a new president of the United States. When the shopping stops after Christmas 2008 and Americans pause for a long weekend and the countdown to 2009, we will engage in the traditional collective look back at the year that was. It will be easy to spot the story that held our attention while watching television news, talking with friends, and […]

The latest American intelligence estimate on Iran has provoked an emotional response in Europe reminiscent of the euphoria inspired by Chamberlain’s words on Sept. 30, 1938, as he appeared before the throng in front of 10 Downing Street and announced that he had achieved “peace in our time.” Even if many commentators warn not to reduce the pressure on Tehran, the dominant sentiment is a feeling of relief: a sentiment to which the German weekly Die Zeit, for example, gave expression with the headline “Phew! There’ll Be No World War Then!” The focus of the coverage in the media is […]

BASRA, Iraq — British forces signed a memorandum on Sunday formally surrendering their lead role in providing security for Iraq’s most economically important province. Oil-rich Basra, home to Iraq’s only two seaports, is the last of four formerly British-occupied provinces to return to Iraqi control. “It’s in your hands now,” Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie said, addressing Basra’s security forces. The handover means a reduced role for the 4,500 British troops concentrated at Basra’s international airport outside the city. The dwindling U.K. contingent will leave its compound only when asked to do so by the Iraqi government. “We are […]

‘ELDERS’ LAUNCH GLOBAL SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN — A group of distinguished veteran statesmen, diplomats and human rights campaigners known as the “Elders” launched a global drive to gather signatures from one billion people who are committed to living their lives according to the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The “Every human has rights” campaign aims “to create an atmosphere in which no person, government, or entity can deny freedom and liberty for any human” and in which “one united human family join[s] together to protect and defend the rights of each other,” Archbishop Desmond Tutu, an elder, said […]

The obituaries for political Islam have begun to be written. After years of seemingly unstoppable growth, Islamic parties have begun to stumble. In Morocco, the Justice and Development Party (or PJD) did far worse than expected in last September’s elections, and Jordan’s Islamic Action Front lost more than half its seats in last month’s polling. The eagerly awaited manifesto of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, a draft of which appeared last September, showed neither strength nor boldness. Instead, it suggested the group was beset by intellectual contradictions and consumed by infighting. It is too early to declare the death of political Islam, […]

WASHINGTON — The sudden release this week of a U.S. intelligence assessment that said Iran halted its nuclear weapons program some four years ago appears to have deepened the rift between U.N. Security Council members over whether the international community will continue pursuing stiffer economic sanctions against Iran. The Security Council’s permanent members have been generally split on the issue, with the United States, Britain and France trying to convince Russia and China of the need for ramped up sanctions. But in recent weeks, Russia and China, who maintain stronger economic ties with Iran than the other permanent members, had […]

BEIRUT, Lebanon — One looks in vain for names in the 22-page report. Last week, Special Investigator Serge Brammertz submitted the ninth U.N. report on the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. But hopes that the 45-year-old Belgian prosecutor would name suspects went unfulfilled. Invoking the confidentiality of the investigations, for the seventh time since assuming his responsibilities in January 2006, Brammertz declined to identify the possible perpetrators of the crime. Brammertz’s predecessor, Detlev Mehlis, had proceeded otherwise. In the first report of the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) in […]

The Dec. 3 assessment by the U.S. intelligence community that Iran has not pursued an active nuclear weapons program since 2003 could lessen concerns about a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. According to the just released unclassified summary of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear intentions and capabilities, “Tehran’s decision to halt its nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005.” U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley released a statement that, “Today’s National Intelligence Estimate offers some positive news. It confirms that we were right […]