Tag Archives: Arab Spring

Peace down the line: Are Iran and the US ready to talk?

On Friday the 27th September, the president of the United States and his Iranian counterpart had a 15-minute phone talk, which signalled the first such high-level dialogue between these two countries for over 30 years. Since the Iranian Shah was Read on! →

Syrian rebels from the “Al-Qasas Brigade” or “Justice Brigade” run through an olive grove to avoid Syrian Army snipers as they travel between villages on foot in the northwestern Jabal al-Zawiya area.

Syria: Would any US-led strike on Syria remain limited in scope?

In August 2012, President Obama declared that any use of chemical weapons by the government of Bashar al-Assad would cross a game-changing red line. When the Assad regime deployed sarin gas on a Damascus suburb, almost exactly a year later, Read on! →

Brahmi at a protest, on the far left

Tunisia: The second assassination of a secular opposition leader threatens to derail Tunisia’s political transition

On Thursday 25th July 2013 Mohammed Brahmi, a secular opposition figure, was gunned down outside his home in Tunis. The killing is reminiscent of the assassination of Chokri Belaid in February, another leading figure in Tunisia’s leftist opposition and an outspoken critic of the ruling Read on! →

Mobile phones and social media have become integral when reporting on the Arab Spring.

The Arab Spring: A broadcast revolution

The Arab Spring movement across the Middle East and North Africa will be remembered not by the professional news recordings and photographs of experienced journalists, but rather by the shaky hand held footage and images captured on the mobile phones Read on! →

Pro-Ennahda protesers demonstrate in 2011

Tunisia: What happened to secularism?

Not long ago, Tunisia was considered a shining example of the secular Arabic state. But since the Arab Spring, it is now the governing Islamic party which is oscillating between the secular opposition and its own more radical members. The Read on! →

Police hold hands to contain protesters.

Jordan: All the King’s Men

Jordan’s monarchy weathered the Arab Spring. Yet all is not well in the Hashemite Kingdom. The monarchy’s decades-long high wire act might be set for a fall.

Foreign Secretary William Hague with Dr Nihad Al Jashi, member of Saudi Arabia’s Majlis Ash-Shura (Shura Council) in London, 5 March 2013.

Saudi Arabia: Will female advisers help women?

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has appointed 30 women to the adviser body of the government, but there are still doubts that the move represents a true disposal to grant greater liberties to women.