Latest in Opinion Highlight
Latest in Opinion
New foundations
In the post-second world war era, American-Saudi relations had been a strategic constant in the Arab world. Both the United States and Saudi Arabia had made sure to work in concert and coordinate closely their Arab and regional policies. There had been disagreements, and in some instances, very serious ones, like the ramifications of the …
Opinion: The one way to control Facebook — delete your account
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who famously took his first cynical steps towards creating the society-smashing social network in a university dorm, has seen his company take a financial hammering. Or so the story goes.
The biography that Trump could not stop
New York, NY—Rarely was there so much expectation for the appearance of a book as is the case of Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House of the North American journalist Michael Wolff. And never before were so many copies sold so quickly. Before its appearance, the book and its e-book version had reached …
A war of succession
On 12 October, the two warring Palestinian organisations, Fatah and Hamas, signed an agreement, under the auspices of the Egyptian Intelligence Service, to carry out a major national reconciliation. According to this agreement, Hamas was supposed to hand over local governance in the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian government headed by Rami Hamdallah. The Cairo …
A risky venture in the Middle East
According to a New York Times article, published on Monday 12 March, the White House is expected to wrap up its much-awaited peace plan for the Middle East. The plan would deal with the major questions of borders, security, refugees, and the status of Jerusalem. According to three senior officials in the United States government, …
The economy tiring us: What after the presidential election?
There is no alternative to focusing on investment and stopping debt
The economy tiring us, Episode 71: Journey to Miami and the world of blockchain
It is no wonder that a number of countries, corporations, and major banks have begun to consider the adoption of dealing with blockchain and the related cryptocurrencies as means of payment. Some European countries, such as Germany, have announced the adoption of encrypted currencies as a means of payment. Venezuela created a new currency linked …
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A strengthened alliance
Leaving behind his mounting legal problems, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Washington last Saturday to attend the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the powerful pro-Israeli lobby in the United States. On his five-day visit, Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump and congressional leaders. The White House meeting …
The wisdom of idiots: a brief morality tale
Idries Shah was a teacher in the Sufi tradition whose seminal work was The Sufis. He presented Sufism as a universal form of wisdom that predated Islam. In his writings, he frequently used teaching stories and humour to transmit this philosophy. His stories contained multiple layers of meaning and were written with the idea that …
Reconciliation efforts resumed
An Egyptian delegation arrived on Sunday 25 February to Gaza, in an effort to bring closer together Fatah and Hamas. Through an Egyptian mediation effort, the two Palestinian factions had signed an agreement on 12 October 2017 in Cairo, committing themselves to carrying out, in letter and spirit, a previous reconciliation accord reached back in …
A word I shouldn’t use
New York—Growing up in Argentina, I had an English teacher named Sarah, a kind and knowledgeable woman. Reading one of my papers, in which I called a character in the story “a despicable man,” she admonished me: “you shouldn’t use that word, César, it is too strong.” Now, decades later, I find that perhaps that …
Egypt: A term of spending despite austerity
Life in Egypt did not, before 25 January, and still does not, after 30 June, live up to the aspirations of many of its inhabitants. Social welfare has been sacrificed on the altar of economic “reform”, as if that was the only hurdle impeding the government’s effectiveness to provide a decent life for all. For …
Middle East on edge
The 54th edition of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) of 2018 convened in Germany from 16 February to 18 February. The MSC brought together more than 450 senior decision-makers from around the world, including heads of state, ministers, leading personalities of international and non-governmental organisations, as well as high-ranking representatives of industry, media, academia, and …
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Tillerson in town
United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson paid an official visit to Cairo, his first since he became America’s top diplomat a year ago, on Monday 12 February. The visit came as a part of a Middle Eastern tour for Tillerson that will also take him to Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, and, finally, Turkey. In Kuwait, …
An oft-neglected Russian connection
One of the least-talked about questions is the coordination and cooperation between Israel and Russia in dealing with regional developments in the Middle East and how far this cooperation has gone in defending Israel’s security interests, particularly, against an expansionist Iran. With the Syrian government winning the war against terrorism and the armed groups which …
The Arabs between Davos and Afrin
On January 20 2018, Turkish forces invaded Syrian territories in a military operation dubbed Olive Branch. The aim has been to clear Afrin from Kurdish “terrorists”—and Ankara vowed to continue its drive inside Syria to the Iraqi-Syrian borders to the east, to drive out all the Kurds from this vast stretch of territory. In so …
Whither international banking?
Strong regional and global integration have been central to countries’ rapid growth and reduced poverty. Few economic sectors can better illustrate integration’s potential benefits—and its significant risks—than the banking sector. The period prior to the 2008 global financial crisis was characterised by a significant increase in financial globalisation, which coincided with dramatic increases in bank …
Fact or Fiction
United States Vice President Mike Pence made his first official tour of the Middle East from January 20-22, during which he visited Egypt, Jordan, and Israel. This tour came exactly on the first year anniversary of the administration of President Donald Trump. During the past year, the American president visited the Middle East last May …
What the Egyptian Exchange needs today for tomorrow’s investors
Liquidity, fair disclosure, market enhancement tools for conducive environment
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Relevance as political power
Since the beginning of time, the idea of revolting against rulers has been studied and scrutinised, yet many people are still conflated about what makes ordinary citizens take to the streets and protest. A lot of people would not have imagined that protests would break out in Iran’s eastern city of Mashhad, initially against price …
Changing regional landscape
The White House announced on 8 January that United States Vice President Mike Pence would be in the Middle East on behalf of President Donald Trump, from 19 to 23 January. Pence will arrive in Egypt on 20 January where he will meet with Egyptian President Abdel Al Fattah Al-Sisi. He will then travel to …
Catastrophe of the century
We are in a time of no rules and no politics. The whole world is like a cat that fell into a basket full of strings. The more it tries to get out of it, the more complicated it becomes. We have small and medium international interest groups in the Arab region, which increases the …
Tourism Minister Rania Al-Mashat: a very old, very new idea
Many were taken by surprise when news leaked that locally and internationally acclaimed economist Rania Al-Mashat was appointed to become Egypt’s minister of tourism, followingsucceeding Yehia Rashed, who was known for his quite impressive record of experience in the field and for the pivotal roles he played therein for many years. Mostly, comments on the …
A Wise Decision
Last Wednesday, I wrote an opinion piece entitled “A Crucial Year” that dealt, primarily, with the next presidential elections in Egypt in the first half of this year. In the coming weeks, when the official presidential campaign begins officially, once the list of the presidential candidates is announced in its final form by the newly-formed …
Presidential election 2018
The political and media scene in Egypt is witnessing a state of great anticipation following the announcement by the National Electoral Commission of the presidential elections in Egypt, which would be the third presidential elections after the January 25 revolution. Elections are sought to be held between 8 February 2018 and April 2018 if there …
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Human development is the basis of any progress
Any leader with a vision to achieve certain objectives should have a strict, clear plan, to be applied firmly, for a better future. He should also avoid the extreme centralisation of decision-making that hinders even simple decisions from going into effect, because everyone waits for the leader to make the decision, even if it was …
A crucial year
The first four-year term of Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi will come to an end in the first half of 2018. According to the 2014 Constitution, he is entitled to a second and last term. So far, he has not announced, officially, whether he would run for a second term, but the odds are that …
Is the collapse of the Iranian regime better for us?
To start with, it should not be understood from this analysis that the Iranian regime is crumbling and about to collapse. The truth is that the regime in Tehran is strong in its structures and apparatus, and it represents a strong sector that cannot be easily removed by demonstrations. However, the importance of the current …
An inadequate order of alliances
Next January, seven years will have passed since the old order in the Middle East crumbled. Egypt had been at the forefront of this political order with a pattern of alliances that had shielded it, for better or worse, from threats to its political stability and national security interests. This order had been aligned with …
Iran, Turkey, and the interests game
It seems that Iran and Turkey agreed to share the legacy of the old, sick Arab man, although they disagreed on the master whose instructions they should follow in the region to help them to achieve their interests and plans. Iran is a Shiite Muslim country, and the majority of Turkey’s population is Sunni Muslim. …