EPA/Petros Karadjias
The government is planning to take part in military action in Syria. But does it need MPs to consent beforehand?
EPA/US Navy
The legal standards for military intervention are complicated and highly specific. It’s not clear an attack on Syria would meet them.
EPA/Afan Abdulkhaleq
Saddled with a repressive government that cuts their wages in the name of austerity, Iraq’s Kurds are demanding something better.
Memories of pre-invasion Iraq live on.
EPA/Ali Abbas
After the US invasion brought their dictator down, Iraqis’ everyday lives were marked by chaos and violence.
EPA/Mohamed Hossam
Egyptians’ revolutionary demands for ‘bread, freedom and social justice’ are a distant memory.
Protestors stand behind burning barricades during clashes with riot police near the Tunisian capital of Tunis in January 2018. Violent protests over price hikes raised fears of broader unrest in the country that was the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
(AP Photo/Amine Landoulsi)
Decentralization in the Middle East and North Africa is supposed to lead to greater public representation in municipal politics. In fact, it is largely strengthening authoritarianism.
Palestinian laborers work at a construction site in an Israeli settlement near Jerusalem in 2017.
AP Photo/Oded Balilty
The Trump administration may believe they have the key to an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement – when others have failed. But it ignores how Israelis and Palestinians feel about such an agreement.
Everybody needs good neighbours.
Claudio Divizia/Shutterstock.com
With Iran and India on manoeuvres and the war in Yemen still unfolding, Pakistan’s stakes in the Middle East are as high as ever.
The movie Nour brings the issue of ‘child marriage’ on the front scene in Lebanon.
IMDB
Renewed attention is being given to the issue of child marriage in Lebanon as increasing numbers of young refugee girls are being married off as a response to the conflict and forced displacement.
Members of the Iraqi police forces sit outside a building in the city of Fallujah on June 30, 2016 after they’ve recaptured the city from Islamic State (IS) group jihadists.
Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP
Was the early conception of IS a branching-out of the old Baath party? Or was it, as some argue, completely separate with no connection at all? Reality is probably a bit of a mix of both.
Mukhar in Lebanon help citizens navigate the complex administration system.
normalsanik/Flickr
One way of improving e-government usage could be for the Lebanese government to work better the locally elected agent.
EPA/Abir Sultan
The events of summer 2011 proved that Israel incubates the same sort of socio-economic discontent that upended the wider Middle East.
Yemeni women take part in a sit-in and a protest against the ongoing conflict in the Arab country, outside the UN offices in Sana'a, Yemen, 16 March 2017.
EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
Many Yemeni women are not victims of war or just escaping or hiding. In many and contrasting ways they are actively supporting it, and not only on humanitarian grounds.
EPA/Mohammed Badra
Outside observers are keen to declare the Syrian conflict almost over. It is anything but.
Protesting the Trump administration’s decision in Bethlehem.
EPA/Abed Al Hashlamoun
With a single cut in donations to a UN agency, Donald Trump has abandoned another norm of US foreign policy. The consequences could be disastrous.
Time’s nearly up: Iranian presidents Mohammad Khatami, Hasan Rouhani, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
EPA/Abedin Takerkenareh
With a hollowed-out agenda and a cynical attitude to corruption, Iran’s reformist forces have squandered their people’s trust.
EPA
Iran’s main opposition is loath to embrace a new wave of protesters. It may soon have no choice.
Student protesters at the University of Tehran.
EPA
The nationwide anti-government protests in Iran could have significant implications in Syria and beyond.
People praying on the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem’s Old City.
REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Wondering why Jerusalem matters so much? A 25-year veteran of the Israeli Foreign Service explains what you need to know.
Putin visits Assad in December 2017.
EPA/Michael Klimentyev/Sputnik
Putin has pulled his troops out of Syria before, only to put them back.