Category: Middle East

The war in Yemen rumbles on

Fighting between the Saudi-led coalition and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen continues to harm civilians, drive displacement in the region and restrict humanitarian access. The conflict has its roots in the failure of a political process supposed to bring stability to Yemen following an uprising in 2011 that forced its long-time authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah […]

Who are Yemen’s Houthis?

The Houthis, who champion Yemen’s Zaidi Shia Muslim minority, are an armed Islamist militia and tribe from north Yemen’s poor, mountainous Saada region. The Zaidi have a long and powerful history in the country. Historically, Zaidism was closely associated with the notion of the rule of the imam (al-imamah or wilayat al imam). The imamate […]

Rifaat al-Assad’s return to Syria

Rifaat Al-Assad, the uncle of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, who left Syria after an alleged coup attempt in 1984, was allowed back into the country last month after his conviction for laundering embezzled funds in a French court was upheld. His return marked the end of a 37-year period spent in exile in Europe where […]

Middle East Hydropolitics: Conflict and Scarcity

In 1920, a committee was established by France and Britain (then the region’s mandated powers) to coordinate efforts toward the utilization of the waters of the Euphrates and Tigris. Attempts since to create a sustainable governance framework and management system for both, have faltered. The Middle East and North Africa is the most water-scarce region […]

War crimes in Libya: the urgent need for justice

The discovery this month of yet another mass grave in Tarhouna, Libya, sheds light on the scale of the atrocities committed during the country’s brutal civil war and underscores the urgent need for action by the international community. A decade on from the fall of Muammar Ghaddafi, evidence of human rights violations and potential war […]

Tactics Report: China and UAE undermining America’s Iran policy claims major new report

China and the UAE are deliberately undermining America’s policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran, claims a major new report on how the West’s approach to containing the Middle East country has failed. Historic Euro-Atlantic defence and security partnership ruptured by President Trump Biden administration unlikely to restore to full Iran nuclear deal The report, Iran […]

EU intervention in Libya; a risky confrontation or a test of resolve?

The possibility of an EU headed military intervention in North Africa has long been a point of contention; this discussion is again evolving following the reported leak of documents detailing plans for a potential EU action in Libya. The alleged benefits of such an intervention relate not only to the interdiction of smuggling across the […]