When it comes to analyzing the so-called "Arab Spring" (a term most pundits increasingly warn against, but that nowadays holds a significant meaning and won't stop being of widespread use anytime soon), a question that comes to many people's minds hinges on the extension of the movement. Has it spread to all Arab countries? What about the Gulf monarchies? Have they been really spared of the unrest or will it eventually increase reaching their neighbour's dimension or, worse still, consequences? Notable cases in point are the United Arab Emirates and Oman. In the United Arab Emirates , 94 people have gone on trial on charges of trying to overthrow their Government, in a process that many human rights watchdogs have shown concern towards, stressing irregularities, arbitrariness and lack of transparency. Coincidentally, the suspects include human rights lawyers, doctors, academics and student leaders, all of them arrested throughout last year, after having advoc...
A blog on Middle Eastern affairs... and everything related to it.