Showing posts for "North Africa"
A spices vendor works in his shop at a market place in the Old Sanaa city (Khaled Abdullah/Courtesy Reuters).
Elias Muhanna, of Qifa Nabki, gives his perspective on the recent resignation of Lebanese PM, Najib Mikati. Read more »
An Egyptian Air Force F-16 fighter jet flies low over thousands of anti-government protesters gathered at Tahrir square in Cairo January 30, 2011. (Yannis Behrakis/Courtesy Reuters).
Egypt is a mess. Just two short years after the uprising that brought Hosni Mubarak’s long-rule to an end, the country is paralyzed politically, protests have become increasingly violent, sectarian tensions are high, the public health system is in total disarray, and the economy is near collapse. Nothing has gone right in this country of 84 million people that has traditionally been the most influential in the region—for good or bad—and since the mid-1970s a pillar of U.S.-Middle East policy. It is not only the peace between Egypt and Israel, but also the U.S. Navy’s access to the Suez Canal, the many daily U.S. military overflights critical to the United States in confronting the Iranian threat, and Egypt’s logistical assistance for U.S. operations in Afghanistan and until not too long ago Iraq that are of paramount importance to Washington. As a result, an objective observer might come to the reasonable conclusion that Egypt needs help and that the international community should do what it can to help pull Egyptians back from the brink. That is certainly the view of most analysts from across the political spectrum, yet in one corner of the commentariat, they are actually hoping for Egypt to fail. Read more »
Shite Muslim supporters of the Imamia Student Organization (ISO) shout slogans as they burn a U.S. flag during an anti-American demonstration in Peshawar (Fayaz Aziz/Courtesy Reuters).
This article was originally published here on ForeignPolicy.com on Friday, September 14, 2012
The attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, this Sept. 11 echoed the worst moments of American impotence in the Middle East. They not only evoked memories of Iranian revolutionaries storming the U.S. Embassy in Tehran almost 33 years ago, but their occurrence on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington further reminded Americans of the deep roots of anti-American rage in the Arab world. Read more »
Protesters climb a fence at the U.S. embassy in Sanaa (Mohamed Al-Sayaghi/Courtesy Reuters).
Nafeesa Syeed provides a closer look at the ongoing protests at the U.S. embassy in Sana’a, Yemen.
Evan Hill offers an interesting analysis of the anti-American demonstrations sweeping the Arab world. Read more »
A Libyan rebel gestures at the frontline, 60 km (37 miles) west of Ajdabiyah (Esam Al-Fetori/Courtesy Reuters)
A Kingdom of Libya flag is seen during a demonstration in support of the Bahraini people in Baghdad's Sadr city (Stringer Iraq/Courtesy Reuters)
Hi folks,
Below is an excerpt from my piece on TheAtlantic.com that appeared today. To read the full text, click here.
A couple of days before Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was finally forced from office, it rained in Cairo. When the storm passed and the sun re-appeared, one of the protesters pointed out on Twitter that a rainbow had appeared over downtown — a sign, she believed, of the freedom and prosperity that was to come. Caught up in the romance of the barricades, it was hard for demonstrators and democracy activists, in Egypt and beyond, not to think that way. It seemed that Middle East was on the verge of a democratic breakthrough. It was one thing for Tunisians to force a tin-pot dictator like Zine Abidine Ben Ali to flee to Jeddah, it was quite another for Egyptians to dump the Pharaoh. That’s not supposed to happen. And as Tunisians inspired Egyptians, what the revolutionaries in Cairo accomplished gave impetus to Pearl Square, where Bahrain’s own protesters have gathered, and to Benghazi, the base of Libya’s rebellion against Muammar Qaddafi. Yet the successes of Tahrir or November 7 squares have not easily translated to these other places. It seems entirely possible that the Arab spring could end on the banks of the Nile. What went wrong?
Saif al-Islam, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, gestures as he speaks during an interview on state television, in this still image taken from video on February 24, 2011 (Reuters/Courtesy Reuters TV)
Tunisian army soldier stands in front of the headquarters of the Constitutional Democratic Rally party of ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali during a demonstration in Tunis on January 20, 2011 (Zohra Bensemra/Courtesy Reuters)
Hi folks,
Below is my article on Tunisia that is now up on Foreign Policy. Enjoy.
Aren’t Middle Eastern militaries supposed to crack down and kick butt? Aren’t they supposed to be the “backbone” of regimes? The guarantors of last resort? The ultimate instrument of political control? Read any account of civil-military relations and the Middle East — including my own — and the answers to these questions are a resounding yes. So when the Tunisian armed forces, allegedly at the command of General Rashid Ammar, told Tunisian President Zine Abidine Ben Ali that the military would not shoot protesters demanding the strongman’s ouster and then pushed him from power, the commanders were clearly not playing to type. The role that the military has played in the Tunisian uprising thus far is intriguing and as Tunisia grapples with phase two of the post-Ben Ali era, what the military does (and doesn’t do) will be critical in the country’s political trajectory.
A protester chants slogans as she holds a placard during a demonstration in downtown Tunis January 18, 2011. Tunisia's new coalition government hit trouble on Tuesday, with three ministers quitting and an opposition party threatening to walk out in protest at the presence of members of the party of the ousted president. The placard reads, "No to a government born of corruption". (Zohra Bensemra/Courtesy Reuters)
A man embraces a soldier as protesters walk past soldiers while shouting slogans during a demonstration against Tunisian President Ben Ali in Tunis (STR New/Courtesy Reuters)
Update: Hats off to those who saw the unraveling of Ben Ali’s regime coming. The army moved in today and Ben Ali is no longer in control. This is good, but only the first phase. Best that I can tell from Washington, it seems that the military command has understood the demands from Tunisian society. What they do now is crucial. I know that the best way to support democracy is to support democracy, but in a way, the military’s intervention (and the way the officers intervened), may yet set the stage for a democratic Tunisia.
From the Potomac to the Euphrates examines how debates about Mideast policy in Washington connect to the region, with a special focus on Egypt and Turkey.
Thanassis Cambanis claims that Lebanon’s Hizballah and the clerical regime in Iran are now fully vested factions in Syria’s civil…
This article was originally published on The Atlantic on Monday, May 12, 2013. Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil announced a cabinet…
The Turkish government’s tepid response to the car bombings in Reyhanli last Friday should help bring to a merciful end…
Steven A. Cook probes the arguments against a No-Fly Zone over Syria. Gary Schmitt says it is doubtful that the…
In what the Turkish press is building up to be a “historic” trip, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will…
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