My friend Hanna is Syrian and also happens to be Christian. The latter fact was rarely of consequence, except whenever he wished to boast about the contributions of Arab Christians to Middle Eastern cultures. Of course, he is right. The modern Arab identity has been formulated through a fascinating mix of religions, sects and races. Christianity, as well as Islam, is deeply-rooted in many aspects of Arab life. Needless to say, the bond between Islam and Christianity is simply unbreakable.

Iran was once on a path of liberalization and reform, before the U.S. Military began sowing destruction throughout the Middle East and Central Asia, following the attacks on the United States in 2001.

Nizar Qabbani was a revolutionary lover, whose powerful poetry was known for its simple language. With aesthetic anger, he wrote verses that dealt with love, politics, nationalism, eroticism and feminism. He once declared love in Arab society as a "prisoner" that needs to be set free. 

The controversy over Iran’s nuclear activities has at least as much to do with the future of international order as it does with nonproliferation. For this reason, all of the BRICS countries [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] have much at stake in how the Iranian nuclear issue is handled.

Lakhdar Brahimi announced on April 17th that he wants to be exclusively the special envoy of the United Nations to Syria and not have the joint role of UN-Arab League envoy to the country. He felt that seating the opposition delegation as the representative of Syria at the Arab League summit in Doha might have compromised his position in the sense that the Arab League is no longer in tune with the mandate that the UN provided. Apparently, Brahimi felt that the seating of the opposition compromised the Arab League component of his mission and minimized his ability to mediate effectively.

Following President Barack Obama’s address to an audience of Israeli students in Jerusalem last month, progressive commentators in the United States hailed the speech as “a passionate appeal for peace” that “placed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict squarely back on his agenda.” But those intoxicated by Obama’s rhetoric will soon experience a painful hangover. For the President’s Israel speech and the rest of his Middle East trip were focused, first and foremost, on domestic politics here in the United States.