Discovering MENA and other thoughts

Obsessing over the Syrian conflict, as I usually tend to do, I figured it might be useful to compile the main reasons why the already all-out war is at a standstill or, in other words, how come is Assad's regime so resilient?  Sectarianism, along other minor factors, is the reason why the civil war in Syria merely started as an uprising (although mainly spearheaded by Sunni leaders) eager to bring down Assad's authoritarian regime, but has progressively taken on religious and ethnic characteristics. Assad's father was able, at the expense of thousands of people dead and millions of ravaged families, to quell the Muslim Brotherhood rebellion three decades ago. This time, the dissent, rage and hatred were deeper and more disseminated and above all were fanned by the optimist winds of the Arab Spring,  The composition of the army and the higher echelons of the regime, built up across sectarian lines since Hafed Al-Assad and his Baathist allies seized power fi...

Incredibly useful information taken from here  (the rest of the analysis is quite interesting, too): "'Alawi" is the term that 'Alawis (also called 'Alawites) usually apply to themselves ; but until 1920 they were known to the outside world as Nusayris or Ansaris. The change in name - imposed by the French upon their seizure of control in Syria - has significance. Whereas "Nusayri" emphasizes the group's differences from Islam, "'Alawi" suggests an adherent of 'Ali (the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad) and accentuates the religion's similarities to Shi'i Islam. Consequently, opponents of the Asad regime habitually use the former term, while its supporters use the latter. 'Alawis today number approximately 1.3 million, of which about a million live in Syria. They constitute some 12 percent of the Syrian population. Three-quarters of the Syrian 'Alawis live in Latakia, a province in the northwest of Syria...

El pasado 20 de abril, Irak celebró elecciones locales, las primeras elecciones en el país árabe desde que las tropas estadounidenses abandonaran definitivamente su territorio en diciembre de 2011. El voto se vio sin embargo empañado por la explosión de pequeñas bombas y el lanzamiento de proyectiles de mortero en y sobre varias mesas electorales. Durante las semanas, e incluso meses, anteriores a lo que algunos consideran una verdadera prueba de fuego con vistas a las próximas  elecciones parlamentarias previstas para 2014 , la campaña se caracterizó por una alarmante escalada de la violencia que culminó con el asesinato de catorce candidatos, la mayoría de ellos sunitas. La reanudación de las  tensiones latentes entre la comunidad chiíta del Primer Ministro Nouri Al-Maliki, la minoría sunita y la población kurda  lleva tiempo erigiéndose como la pieza clave del delicado castillo de naipes que Irak representa en pleno núcleo del mundo árabe. El delicado equilibrio se h...

Here are the more common questions about the Nakba (taken from here ) 1. What is the Nakba? Nakba means "Catastrophe" in Arabic. It refers to the destruction of Palestinian society in 1948 when approximately 750,000 Palestinians fled or were forced into exile by Israeli troops. Because the Palestinians were not Jewish, their presence and predominant ownership of the land were obstacles to the creation of a Jewish state. Their exodus, or Nakba, was already nearly half-complete by May 1948, when Israel declared its independence and the Arab states entered the fray. Many Zionist leaders in Palestine openly favored "transfer" of the indigenous Palestinian population. Zionist forces used clashes that erupted as the British Mandate of Palestine came to an end in 1947-48 to rid as much of the land of its Palestinian inhabitants as possible. By the end of 1948, approximately 750,000 Palestinians - three-quarters of the Palestinian population - fled in panic ...

I was about to write an article on April 20 Iraq´s local elections, the country´s first vote since US troops left for good in December 2011, when I read that small bombs had exploded and mortar shells had been fired at several polling stations. During the weeks, and even months, prior to what some considered a test before the Parliamentary Elections of 2014, the campaign was marked by an escalation of violence and fourteen candidates, most of them Sunnis, were killed. I already spoke about the resumption of tensions between the Shiite communities of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, the Sunni minority and the Kurdish population. Apparently, this was just the start, as the country seems set for a new civil war. The last sectarian war took place in 2006 and 2007, and left tens of thousands of people dead.

Throughout the week, a lot has been said about Israel attacking Syria. The news was about Israel carrying out airstrikes in and around Damascus, targeting missiles Iran intended to smuggle into Lebanon through Syrian soil. The final addressee was Hezbollah, which would in turn have later used this "game-changing" weapons to attack Israel. Even though Israel did not confirm the military move at the beginning (the first information came from US intelligence sources), many officials (including an Israeli ambassador acting as guest speaker in a conference on the Southern Mediterranean I had the honour to attend) have commented on it, affirming that Israel is not looking forward to intervening in Syria, but has drawn its particular "red line", that is, Iran providing the Shiite militia with powerful arms that will put in danger both the stability in the region and Israeli citizens' safety. As a matter of fact, and in anticipation to some kind of counter-attack, I...

Con motivo del inicio del año nuevo kurdo y ante cientos de miles de enfervorizados seguidores,  Abdullah Ocalan , condenado a cadena perpetua y líder del PKK –  Partido de los Trabajadores del Kurdistán , etiquetado por muchos países de organización terrorista -  sorprendió al anunciar no únicamente un alto el fuego, sino también la retirada de todas los efectivos del grupo (los expertos calculan que ést0s ascienden a más de 3.000) del territorio turco, en lo que algunos consideran la culminación de años de esfuerzos ejercidos por ambas partes para poner fin a un sangriento conflicto que se ha alargado durante décadas y ha dejado tras de sí más de  40.000 muertes , de kurdos en una gran mayoría, así como miles de familias completamente devastadas.

Apparently, China is hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for separate talks, showing a desire for a greater role in the region. The two leaders are due in Shanghai but will not coincide, as Netanyahu is due there on Wednesday, following Abbas’ departure a day earlier. China was looking forward to being able to organize an encounter and therefore to set up a meeting if the two men wanted. But understandably neither of them did. Even though the "Empire of the Centre" has traditionally maintained a low profile in the region, it has tried in recent years to play a more active role. Its diplomatic efforts were principally directed towards the economic sector, as well as to the quest for strategical resources, namely oil and gas. But, as of lately, China has also shown greater interest in playing a certain role in the political arena. The latter intention did not bode well when the state repeatedly opposed interna...

For months, the Syrian opposition has been accusing Hezbollah of waging a war against the Syrian people. Reports increasingly acknowledge the presence of Lebanese fighters, fighting alongside Assad´s army, on Syrian soil, namely in Shiite villages along the border between Syria and Lebanon. Even though the extent of the implication of Shiite group in Syria cannot be verified, it was clear the cum-militia had, in some measure, blood in their hands. This was confirmed when, in a televised speech, the leader of the Lebanese organization, Hassan Nasrallah, said they are ready to protect the Syrian regime. Nasrallah affirmed Syria has true friends in the region and the world that won't permit Syria to "fall in the hands of America, Israel, and Takfiris [jihadist group linked to Al Qaeda]". He added that members of Hezbollah were "providing appropriate aid" to Syrian government forces. He however denied Iranian forces are deployed in Syria, although he acknowledged ...

Months ago, an article in L'Orient-Le Jour renewed my hopes of a League of Arab States' (aka LAS) favourable evolution. Last January, LAS SG Nabil Al-Arabi, after talks in Cairo with President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, pleaded for a "new approach" to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for the current 2002 API has provided nothing but failure. It is indeed high time to move forward, to change tack and to, above all, clearly set the goals all stakeholders want to achieve, in order to finally make real steps towards peace in the Middle East. The Arab League has announced the reformulation of the key text during a high-level meeting in Washington between a delegation from the Arab League headed by Qatar´s diplomacy hawk and PM, Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Al-Thani, and US Secretary of State John Kerry, who recently visited the region and spoke of an urgent need for the resumption of peace negotiation. The new Initiative appears to foll...

A new Pew Research Center survey of Muslims around the globe finds that most adherents of the world’s second-largest religion are deeply committed to their faith and want its teachings to shape not only their personal lives but also their societies and politics. In all but a handful of the 39 countries surveyed, a majority of Muslims say that Islam is the one true faith leading to eternal life in heaven and that belief in God is necessary to be a moral person. Many also think that their religious leaders should have at least some influence over political matters. And many express a desire for sharia – traditional Islamic law – to be recognized as the official law of their country.