How ironic that a regime that so insistently perpetuated the cult of martyrdom may itself become undone with the aid of an Iranian martyr: a 26-year-old woman named Neda Agha-Solton. With images of fatally wounded Neda’s bloodied face ricocheting around Iran and the world via the Internet, her tragic death exactly a week ago instantly made […]
A few readers raised the very reasonable complaint that none of us has blogged about the events in Iran. You’re right. A few feeble excuses: Andrew was in Saudi, Scott back in the U.S. and I was traveling through Lebanon and Syria. This may come as something of a shock to a few of the […]
Republican critics of the Obama Administration are having a field day with the crisis in Iran. To them, Obama’s less than forceful criticism of the Iranian government’s crackdown on protesters in Tehran smacks of the lack of resolve typical of Democrats. Some have compared Obama to Jimmy Carter, whose bungled handling of the hostage crisis at […]
Arriving in Saudi Arabia for the first time is initially anti-climactic. I guess I was expecting Riyadh, the capital of this fabulously wealthy desert kingdom, to have a little more bling. In reality, Riyadh has just two tall buildings, including the iconic Kingdom Center (pictured left.) Not much to compare with with Dubai’s skyscraper alley […]
So far most Arab leaders have reacted to the Iranian electoral crisis in typical Middle Eastern fashion: they haven’t. Amir Moussa, the head of the Arab League, took one for the team and made this non-statement statement: “We hope that the next term will witness progress on the relations between Iran and the Arab world […]
“I am the absolute winner of the election by a very large margin. It is our duty to defend people’s votes. There is no turning back.” Challenger Mir Hossein Moussavi spoke those words before the Iranian regime announced that he had been roundly defeated in Iran’s presidential election by the controversial, hard-line incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A […]
The full results aren’t yet official, but it appears that Lebanon’s American-backed ruling coalition maintained its majority in parliament after the country voted in record numbers yesterday. Over half of the country’s eligible voters turned out for a contest between a government that came to power in 2005 after a popular uprising against the Syrian occupation […]
Today’s election in Lebanon has been billed as one of the most important in the country’s history, and it certainly feels that way. Polling stations have been packed this morning, and the country is on a military semi-lockdown. Nightclubs and bars closed early last night, and almost everything else has been shut since. The electoral battle […]
