Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas Gaza government, talks to his supporters during a Hamas rally marking the anniversary of the death of its leaders killed by Israel, in Gaza City March 23, 2014. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA – Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST ANNIVERSARY)

Opinion: Hamas and the Delusion of Victory

by Amir Taheri | Sep 5, 2014 | Opinion

While victory has a thousand fathers, defeat is always an orphan. The Latin proverb came to my mind the other day as I watched Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh boasting on live television about his group’s “historic victory” in the recent mini-war with...

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Iraq’s Prime Minister-designate Haider Al-Abadi speaks during a news conference in Baghdad on August 25, 2014. (Reuters/Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud)

Iraq PM-designate facing tough task to form cabinet

by Ma'ad Fayad | Sep 5, 2014 | Middle East

Baghdad, Asharq Al-Awsat—Iraq’s various political parties are pursuing a dangerous policy of brinkmanship over the formation of a new government with Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Haider Al-Abadi facing a September 11 deadline to announce a new cabinet. Discussions...

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Head of the Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC), Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani (C) gestures during the start of the sorting of presidential ballot papers for the audit and recounting at the counting center at a warehouse in Kabul on July 17, 2014. (AFP/Wakil Khosar)

Afghanistan completes election audit in step toward new president

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Sep 5, 2014 | World

Kabul, Reuters—A UN-supervised audit of votes in Afghanistan’s disputed presidential election has finished, an Afghan electoral official said on Friday. The audit of the June 14 run-off election was part of a US-brokered deal to defuse escalating tension in a...

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This undated file photo shows Syrian girls gathering water in Damascus, Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Damascus’s Summer of Discontent

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Sep 5, 2014 | Features

Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat—“My son is on the phone, he said the water tank is empty. The problem is that water has not been on for three days.” With this statement, Narmeen drew an evening out with her friends to a close—an evening they had planned a week before to enjoy...