Back to Abdelrahman Munif’s Cities of Salt and London-based Palestinian writer Elias Nasrallah’s recent book with a startling rereading of what Munif was trying to say in a work that has come to be regarded as one of the greats of modern […]
By Andrew Hammond DUBAI | Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:13am BST (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia has helped damp down democracy movements sweeping the Arab world but is waiting now to see how events play out in places like Syria and Yemen for […]
The Big Speech was rather a non-event from the perspective of most people in the region, I reckon. Obama and his administration were behind the curve when the uprisings broke out. The uprisings were troubling for them because 1. (like the Iranian Revolution in 1979) […]
What is striking about Osama Bin Laden’s extrajudicial execution – let’s be precise – is how insignificant the man’s movement had become in much of the region. The threat to Arab regimes has moved on from the violent revolt of al-Qa’ida to the peaceful civil […]
Abdelbari Atwan, the editor of al-Quds al-Arabi, says the Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf was looking for investments not direct aid handouts during his Gulf tour last week. But while he was received in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, the door was […]
By Andrew Hammond DUBAI | Wed Apr 27, 2011 10:04am EDT (Reuters) – At a recent conference in Abu Dhabi, a confidant of the emirate’s crown prince vented his frustration over the downfall of a major ally who Gulf Arab rulers once […]
Word is Egypt’s post-uprising prime minister will be in Riyadh next week meeting King Abdullah. One would like to be a fly on the wall at that one. It’s not been a good year for the Gulf dynasties. The regional discourse was […]
I had the good fortune to receive a copy of a rare and arresting critique of Abdelrahman Munif’s classic Cities of Salt novels. It is by Elias Nasrallah, a London-based Palestinian writer, and just came out in Arabic last year under the […]
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy wants to tell us that “U.S.-Saudi relations are in crisis” (http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC06.php?CID=1612). We’ve heard this one many times before and quite frankly who’s buying it. The “conflict” over the U.S. administration’s rhetorical commitment to democracy and freedom to choose your […]
I read quite a few of Abdo Khal’s novels. He’s idolised by the small liberal elite. This one got him the ‘Arabic Booker’. I met him at Dubai film festival in December 2010, we were chatting with Ahmed Mansoor who was arrested […]