Discovering MENA and other thoughts

On Nov. 22, Bahrain held a first round of legislative and local elections. Similar to what has happened with the majority of events that have taken place in the country throughout the last few years, few in the media refer to both the vote itself and the circumstances surrounding it. Bahrain sets itself as a privileged stage in the cold war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the support Gulf states have provided to the discredited monarchy just reminds us of how overlapping junctures are in this part of the world. The Bahrain vote will be the first to be held since the 2011 uprising, already discussed in  Discovering MENA . At first, the uprising did not call for the overthrow of the king, but to democratic reforms promised for years by the king himself. Reconciliation talks between the royal family –  Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa  continues to be hugely popular amongst his subjects – and the opposition were actually revived earlier this year before ...

Bahrein celebró  ayer la primera ronda de elecciones legislativas y locales y, al igual que ha ocurrido con la gran mayoría de acontecimientos que desde hace unos años han sacudido el país, escasos parecen ser los medios de prensa que hacen referencia a estos comicios y a las circunstancias que les rodean.  Escenario privilegiado de la guerra fría entre Irán y Arabia Saudí , el apoyo que los estados del Golfo han prestado a la desacreditada monarquía no ha hecho sino recordar a propios y ajenos lo imbricadas que están las coyunturas en esa parte del planeta. Se tratará de los primeros comicios que se celebran desde el levantamiento de 2011, que ya  analizamos en Miradas de Internacional , y que en un primer momento no exigían el derrocamiento del rey sino reformas democráticas que el monarca había prometido durante años.

Talking about politics in Lebanon is always tantamount to wondering about the status of Hezbollah (meaning "Party of God"). Hezbollah is, at the same time, as The Economist likes to call it, a party-cum-militia, created within the Shia community and funded by Iran during the country's civil war - in 1982 - with the main aim of offer resistance (muqawama) to the state's self declared biggest enemy that had just (taking advantage of the ongoing chaos) invaded the country: Israel. Its paramilitary wing is still regarded as a resistance movement throughout much of the Arab and Muslim worlds. Several countries and organizations in the West and elsewhere (U.S., Netherlands, France, Gulf Cooperation Council, U.K., Australia, Canada, the European Union ) classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, be it in whole or in part.

A key presidential election will take place in Iran this Friday 14 June. The last Presidential elections were held in 2009 and set themselves up as a turning point for democratic hopes all around the world, embodied by what many soon started calling the "Green Movement", in a country often dubbed "authoritarian" or even "dictatorial". Indeed, Iran’s elections have increasingly become more and more controlled by the regime since the 1997 vote, when Mohammad Khatami won over the Supreme Leader’s anointed candidate, a former parliamentary speaker. Likewise, in 2005, the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (the Revolutionary Guards) and the Basij (paramilitary volunteer militia to defend Khomeini´s intentions) are believed to have heavily intervened to ensure the incumbent President´s victory against former President and co-founding member of the Islamic Republic, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who, just as he has been doing nowadays, was then see...

On the occasion of the start of the Kurdish new year and before hundred of thousands of feverish supporters, imprisoned PKK (Kurdistan Worker Party, branded by many countries as terrorist organization) leader, Abdullah Ocalan, surprised many by announcing last week both a ceasefire and the withdrawal of all the group's forces (experts reckon they amount to more than 3,000) from Turkey, in what some consider the culmination of years-long efforts from both sides to put an end to a decades-long bloody conflict that has left behind more than 40,000 deaths (a vast majority of them Kurdish), as well as thousands of ravaged families. With this declaration, the group meets one of the conditions PM Erdogan has repeatedly established to set off formal negotiation talks. A similar process was put into motion in 1999, following the capture of Ocalan by Turkish forces, but failed and, as a result, the Turkish army severely attacked the group. The second failed effort reached the 2010 "Os...

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is officially the first Iranian leader to visit Egypt in more than 30 years, since both countries broke diplomatic relations after Egypt entered into a key agreement with Israel that entailed the recognition of the Jewish state, a move the Iranian Revolution harshly protested against. Ahmadinejad, who was in the Arab capital in order to attend a Summit of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, quickly embraced fellow Egyptian President Morsi upon arrival in Cairo, showing to what extent the thrust of closer relations between both countries was the actual aim of his visit. Both leaders also had the occasion to tackle the divisive Syrian issue both countries are heavily involved in, bluntly betting for an eventual round of negotiations that could lead to a pacific consensual solution. The mood of this meeting starkly contrasted with that of last year's summit, where Morsi blatantly chastised Iran regarding his stance towards the neighbouring civi...

Days ago, my friend María Sanchez informed on Scoop Empire about the Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's visit to Iran ( Morsi's visit to Iran - the world is watching ) and the reactions such a historical event has sparked/could spark. Morsi will visit Iran within the framework of the holding of a Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. The Movement was formally created in 1961 by prominent leaders of that time, Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser amongst them, with the aim of declaring themselves "neutral" and defend their sovereignty in everything that concerned Cold War-related events. After the end of the conflict, the group has struggled to find a common aim; as membership falls most of the times under the "third world" umbrella, development issues are normally discussed, as well as significant world events. It remains a key forum of dialogue in the international arena. The Movement's last Summit was held in Sharm El-Sheikh (Mubarak's darling reso...