Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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Iraqi Shiite men parade their weapons in the shrine city of Karbala, in central Iraq, on June 25, 2014 after they volunteered to protect the Shiite holy sites in central and south Iraq in case of an attack by Sunni militants led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Iraq’s top Shiite […]

Opinion: A War of Sectarians, Not a Sectarian War

by Amir Taheri | Jun 27, 2014 | Opinion

The current crisis in Iraq is routinely described by international media as a “sectarian” war. The assumption is that Iraq is being torn apart because its various component parts, especially Arab Sunnis and Shi’ites, have somehow decided they can no longer live...

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Syrian refugees cross the border into the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, August 19, 2013. (REUTERS/Azad Lashkari)

The Sectarian Map of Syria

by Eyad Abu Shakra | Sep 1, 2013 | Features

London, Asharq Al-Awsat—Since the dawn of history, Syria has lain at the crossroads of mankind’s greatest commercial religious and political powers. However, the land known as the Fertile Crescent has seen more than just the rise and fall of great ancient...

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A judge counts votes during the early hours of the night after elections closed at the Khaldiya polling station in District 3, Kuwait City, on July 27, 2013. (REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed)

Kuwait election boosts liberal and tribal representation

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Jul 28, 2013 | Middle East

London, Asharq Al-Awsat—Liberals and members of conservative Sunni tribes were the winners in yesterday’s parliamentary elections in Kuwait. Despite having no MPs in the last parliament, candidates affiliated with the liberal trend took three seats in this round....

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Pro-Islamic Turks take part in a demonstration supporting deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi in Istanbul July 14, 2013. (Reuters/Umit Bektas)

Opinion: The Turkish Republic or the Ottoman Empire?

by Abdullah Al-Otaibi | Jul 24, 2013 | Opinion

The statements coming from Turkey about the state of affairs in Egypt after June 30 seem shocking, especially those issued by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu. The statements seem hostile and provocative to the new...

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Hussein (far right) and Mahmoud (second from left) Al-Awan, at the Military Revolutionary Council base in Darkush, Idlib, Syria May 2013 (AAA)

Father and Son

by Hannah Lucinda Smith | May 26, 2013 | Features

Idlib, Asharq Al-Awsat—When Mahmoud fights on the front line his father is right there beside him. “I want him to be behind me so that I can protect him,” he says as he glances up shyly from the floor. But his father is the boss and he takes a different view. He...