As the Islamic State continued to advance on the ground in Iraq and to hold its own in Syria, US President Barack Obama addressed senior allied military commanders in a bid to formulate a strategy for rolling back IS fighters. Yet, talk is no substitute for serious action and bo

Palestinians in Gaza wait, with trepidation, to see what will happen at the international donors’ conference, which is being convened in Cairo on October 12 to raise funds for the reconstruction of the coastal strip following Israel’s brutal and destructive 50-day ass

Last week, Europe’s nearest landfall to the coast of Syria, Cyprus, received its first boatpeople and now faces the challenge posed by Syrian asylum seekers setting sail on leaky boats from Mediterranean ports. That boat carried 345 migrants — 200 men, 93 women and 5

Lebanon is already the third battlefront in the war against the Islamic State (IS) and, like embattled Syria and Iraq, it has neither the political unity needed nor the material means to fight its battle. Veteran analyst Marie Nassif-Debs said: “We have no president”

The election of former Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the country’s president and his appointment of former foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu as prime minister has made it all the more difficult for Ankara to cooperate with the coalition against the Islamic S

US President Barack Obama has opted for a faulty, contradictory policy in the fight against the Islamic State. On the one hand, his administration hailed the formation of the new Iraqi government, meant to be his chief tool in this effort, as a “major milestone”, whi

Israel’s 50-day war on Gaza has been a costly business, both for Israel and Gaza. Israel launched its attack as the country’s economic growth had slowed from 2.8 to 1.7 per cent and exports, accounting for about one-third of the economy, had declined by 18 per cent,

Politicians and pundits wrongly claim that Hamas and its armed allies secured nothing in the latest Egyptian ceasefire plan beyond what was offered in its initial proposal, put forward in mid-July.

Despite the loss of the Mosul dam, a major reverse in Iraq, the Islamic State (IS), remains a supremely confident organisation that counts God on its side and believes that ultimately its “Islamic state” or cross-border caliphate will survive and succeed. The recorde