Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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Kurdish Peshmerga forces seize control of Mosul’s Rabia district after Iraqi army forces abandoned the city to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, June 14, 2014. (Emrah Yorulmaz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Yesterday’s Enemies, Tomorrow’s Friends?

by Soner Cagaptay | Jul 10, 2014 | The Majalla Magazine

When I visited Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in 2007, my host, a leading Kurdish official, asked me when Turkey was going to invade the KRG. Today, the world has seen a 180-degree shift, and the question now is if the KRG will cut ties...

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India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C) gestures during his arrival at the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi on May 27, 2014. (Raveendran/AFP/Getty Images)

Modi’s Moment

by Afshin Molavi | Jun 5, 2014 | The Majalla Magazine

In the shadow of Dubai’s glittering skyscrapers, creaking, colorful wooden dhows line the historic Creek waterway, groaning with Korean television sets, Indian basmati rice, Iranian pistachios and Chinese-made T-shirts and shoes. Many of the sailors aboard those dhows...

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A poster showing Iraqi Shi’ites killed in Syria while fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is seen in the southern port city of Basra on April 21, 2014. (AFP PHOTO/STR)

New War, Old Faces

by Stephen Wicken | Apr 23, 2014 | The Majalla Magazine

Despite the pre-war strength—on paper—of the Syrian armed forces, the fighting in Syria has stretched the limits of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s military resources. Now in its fourth year, Assad’s fight against the forces of the Syrian revolution depends...

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A man walks past electoral posters of the current Algerian president and candidate in the forthcoming presidential election, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in Ain Ouassara, southwest of Algiers, on April 10, 2014. (REUTERS/Louafi Larbi)

Old Powers in a New Poll

by Nabila Ramdani | Apr 11, 2014 | The Majalla Magazine

Images of a frail old man insisting he is fit to govern will do little to persuade Algerian voters that Abdelaziz Bouteflika is the president to lead them forward into a democratic future. There have been few pictures of the indefatigable 77-year-old over the past few...

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The oil tanker the Morning Glory during the unloading of oil in the Libyan sea port of Zawiya on April 4, 2014. (AFP PHOTO/MAHMUD TURKIA)

Rebels at the Porthole

by Haley Cook and Jason Pack | Apr 4, 2014 | The Majalla Magazine

Three years ago, the term “rebel,” when used by the Western media in reference to Libya, conjured up images of unlikely young fighters who took up arms for the first time against an unjust regime, guided by a hatred of tyranny, a desire for personal freedoms, and the...

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Iranians look at newspapers displayed on the ground outside a kiosk in Tehran on November 25, 2013. (AFP Photo/Atta Kenare)

Iran’s Fourth Estate

by Arash Karami | Mar 15, 2014 | The Majalla Magazine

The state of the Iranian media can serve as a bellwether for understanding where the country is headed. In the past, the restrictions under which Iranian journalists had to operate fluctuated as the political fortunes of conservatives and reformists shifted. When...