Middle East & North Africa Archives - Foreign Policy In Focus

Negotiating and Looking Tough: The Mirrored Policies of the U.S. and Iran

by Farideh Farhi, Erik Leaver | Oct 3, 2006

September was a hopeful month for those interested in the de-escalation of tensions between the Unites States and Iran. The extension of a U.S. visa by the Bush Administration to the former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami despite vociferous conservative opposition was seen as a sign of possible change in U.S. foreign policy. In addition, a mixture of softer words employed by Iran’s current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the UN and in his many media appearances in the U.S. regarding Iran’s intentions in the region brought hope of possible movement in Tehran.

Oil Trip

by fpifadmin | Sep 27, 2006

It is almost impossible to imagine, as we sit in a well-lit, fully functioning gas station on Main Street, USA, that a community blessed with oil riches under its soil could look as impoverished as Yenagoa in the Nigerian state of Bayelsa.

Postcard from Jenin

by John Feffer, Sandy Marshall | Sep 22, 2006

After a 2002 Israel Defense Forces attack, the Palestinian residents of the West Bank town of Jenin made it a point of pride to rebuild the razed buildings, restore homes ransacked by occupation, repave roads dug up by Israeli tanks, and replant olive groves uprooted by Israeli bulldozers.

Pens Not Swords

by Sarah Browning, John Feffer | Sep 21, 2006

Writers Becky Thompson and E. Ethelbert Miller bring poetry to the streets. Photo by Mike Maggio.

Bush at the UN: Annotated

by John Feffer, Stephen Zunes | Sep 20, 2006

President George W. Bush’s address before the United Nations General Assembly on September 19 appeared to be designed for the domestic U.S. audience. Indeed, few of the foreign delegations or international journalists present could take seriously his rhetoric regarding the promotion of democracy in the Middle East, given the reality of U.S. policy in the region.

Leaving Iraq: A How-To

by Erik Leaver | Sep 6, 2006

Challenged in a recent press conference on his strategy to “win” the Iraq War, President Bush defiantly stated, “If I didn’t think it would work, I would change.” Instead of “staying the course” and bad-mouthing critics by comparing them to those who sought to appease the Nazis before World War II, Bush should be seeking new and creative ways to stop the utter destruction of Iraq and the constant loss of our soldiers.

Postcard from Syria

by Farrah Hassen, Erik Leaver | Sep 6, 2006

In June 2003, I made my first trip to Syria, home to generations of my family, the two oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth (Damascus and Aleppo), the final resting place of Kurdish leader Salahaddin and on a lighter note, purveyor of arguably the most decadent, mind-numbing syrupy sweets.

Light among the Ruins

by John Feffer, Conn Hallinan | Sep 5, 2006

The images most Americans have of the recent war in Lebanon are of shattered cities, dead civilians, and terrified people bunkered down in basements or picking their way through blasted streets. The carnage of modern war draws the media as ancient battles called forth the Valkyries.

The Persistence of Illusion

by John Feffer, Conn Hallinan | Aug 30, 2006

The Middle East has always been a place where illusion paves the road to disaster. In 1095, Pope Urban’s religious mania launched the Crusades, the reverberations of which still echo through the region. In 1915, Winston Churchill’s arrogance led to the World War I bloodbath at Gallipoli. In 2003, George Bush’s hubris ignited a spiral of chaos and civil war in Iraq.

Lebanon, Sudan: Who You Gonna Call?

by John Feffer, Don Kraus | Aug 29, 2006

The world is holding its collective breath. Will the Lebanon ceasefire hold? Will war and ethnic cleansing escalate again in Darfur? UN peacekeeping, described by Secretary General Kofi Annan as Âthe only fire brigade in the world that has to acquire a fire engine after the fire has started,Â will be key in both situations to preventing further death and destruction. Prompt UN protection of civilians in war-torn regions, however, requires a new institution: a rapidly deployable UN Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS).