Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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A woman walks past election posters of Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad along a street in Damascus on June 2, 2014. (Reuters/Khaled Al-Hariri)

Syria’s Election: “How can I vote for my killer?”

by Hannah Lucinda Smith | Jun 3, 2014 | Features

Reyhanlı, Asharq Al-Awsat—Few people, either in or outside Syria, expect the Syrian presidential election to hold any surprises. “It is a sham election,” Anthony Franks, a Middle East expert with consulting firm Mars Omega, told me a few weeks ago as we discussed the...

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This undated file image posted on a militant website on Tuesday, Jan 14, 2014 shows fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) marching in Raqqa, Syria. (AP Photo)

Syria: ISIS tightens grip on Raqqa

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Jun 1, 2014 | Middle East

Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat—The militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has stepped up efforts to prevent Syrians in territory under its control from voting in Thursday’s presidential election, activists said on Saturday, as the Syrian government...

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An Iraqi election commission official pulls ballot boxes at a polling station in the capital, Baghdad, on May 8, 2014, following the country’s general elections. (AFP PHOTO/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE)

Opinion: The Scourge of Sectarianism

by Eyad Abu Shakra | May 22, 2014 | Opinion

The results of the Iraqi elections did not come as a surprise to me, not do I believe they would have surprised any shrewd observer of the Iraqi political scene. The regional project that these results betray is clear to see, and Iraq’s politicians are playing the...