Middle East & North Africa Archive

Last week it was the Pyramids, and Wednesday, the Karnak Temple in Luxor. Twice in one week, militants attacked major tourism sites in Egypt, reviving fears of a return to the violence that marked the 1990s. Then, the low-level insurgency by Islamic radicals against former President Hosni Mubarak culminated in the horrific 1997 attack on the Temple of Hatsepshut, across the Nile from Luxor, when gunmen killed 58 tourists and six Egyptians. On Wednesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a parking lot just outside the sprawling, Pharaonic-era Karnak Temple along the Nile. Two gunmen then engaged in a […]

Among the many challenges Saudi Arabia has faced in recent months, one has come as a particularly unexpected disappointment: the cooling of relations between the desert kingdom and one of the main recipients of its largesse, Pakistan. For decades Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have enjoyed a robust friendship with significant strategic and financial ramifications. But suddenly, Islamabad appears to feel much less warmly disposed toward its wealthy Arab friend. The change came as a blast of cold air in April, when the Pakistani parliament voted unanimously to rebuff a Saudi request for troops and equipment to help its war against […]

In the weeks since the Lausanne talks that set a late June goal for a formal agreement regarding Iran’s nuclear activities, the media coverage and political discourse in the United States have resembled a roller-coaster ride, with some shrieks, thrills and stomach lurches. After an initial bounce of broad approval, with even some important Republican voices and Democratic hawks praising the Lausanne framework deal for securing a more substantial set of commitments from Iran than most had expected, the public conversation has become more volatile now. The alleged sticking points vary from week to week: Is Iran in compliance with […]

This week marks one year since the so-called Islamic State (IS) took control of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The fall of Mosul forced Iraq back onto U.S. President Barack Obama’s agenda and prompted a re-examination of the U.S. policy toward IS. Just yesterday, the White House announced that up to 450 additional U.S. troops will be deployed to train Iraqi forces and help in the fight against the group. World Politics Review partnered with the Global Dispatches podcast to present this interview with WPR columnist Steven Metz on the evolving U.S. strategy against IS. Speaking with host Mark […]

Last month, the foreign ministers of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Australia met in Seoul for the fifth round of so-called MIKTA foreign ministerial meeting. In an email interview, Günther Maihold, the Guillermo and Alejandro de Humboldt chair at the College of Mexico, discussed the MIKTA grouping. WPR: What was the impetus behind the creation of the MIKTA grouping, and what are the main areas of cooperation between the MIKTA countries? Günther Maihold: When the foreign ministers of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Australia met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 25, 2013 and […]

It’s not hard to understand what motivates local Iraqis and Syrians to fight for the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS). Most believe they are defending their community, Sunni Arabs, against repression from the Alawite-dominated Syrian dictatorship or the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government. But the motives of the estimated 20,000 foreign fighters that have joined IS are more complex, tied to deep psychological factors that make them less amenable to political solutions and more difficult to address. Every insurgent movement includes people with diverse motives. Yet the counterinsurgency doctrine of the United States and its NATO partners gravitates to political and economic grievances, […]

The plight of migrants and refugees has made headlines around the world in recent months. Despite the globalized economy, governments remain stubborn about the movement of human beings across national borders. This report covers ongoing migration crises from the Mediterranean to Africa to Southeast Asia. For the next two weeks, all of the articles linked below are free for non-subscribers. Europe: Thousands of African and Middle Eastern migrants fleeing to Europe in unsafe boats have drowned in the Mediterranean in high-profile incidents this year. The European Union has drawn much criticism for its inability to prevent these tragedies. Not the […]

He sat with his back to the camera, a black scarf over his head hiding his identity. In a 47-minute televised interview with Al-Jazeera recorded in “liberated territory” in northern Syria, the leader of the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, said his group has no plans to attack the West. Its focus is toppling President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The choreographed media campaign by the Nusra Front and its leader, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Muhammed al-Golani, capped the group’s rise as one the most powerful of Syria’s rebel factions. Nusra fighters played a key role in […]

Officials from 20 countries participating in the U.S.-led coalition against the so-called Islamic State (IS) met in Paris today to discuss their strategy against the insurgent group. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that air strikes and support to Iraqi forces are the right course of action against IS, though Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called IS’ advance in his country a “failure” of the international community. Abadi has faced criticism since assuming office last September that he has not done enough to facilitate Sunni-Shiite reconciliation in Iraq. Iraq’s Sunnis find themselves in a difficult situation—“ground zero in […]

Despite new commonalities of interest arising from chaos and change in the Middle East, and after a brief moment of opportunity for a diplomatic breakthrough a year ago, Israel and Turkey’s relations remain in a deep freeze at the highest levels of government. Yet bilateral trade continues to boom, and economic ties are robust at many other levels. Nevertheless, the two states are unlikely to reconcile politically any time soon, absent changes of leadership on both sides and the prior resolution of a host of other more pressing regional problems. Israel has long felt isolated in the region and drew […]