The cost of the US-led air campaign against the Islamic State has surpassed the $1 billion mark. US and allied fliers have flown more than 13,000 combat missions and dropped 4,000 munitions.

In the run-up to Christmas, senior Christian and Muslim figures have called on the Christians of this region, home to all three Abrahamic faiths, to stay on in spite of the violence perpetrated by the Islamic State (IS), Jabhat Al Nusra and other extremists against all who do not

On Tuesday, UNHCR convened a gathering in Geneva with the aim of pressing wealthy countries to provide $7.2 billion in financial assistance for Syrian refugees and to offer asylum or resettlement for 130,000 of the 3.2 million registered refugees now living in Jordan, Lebanon, Tu

The dismissal on technical grounds of the case against ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak for failing to prevent or halt violence against protesters during the 2011 uprising was expected but condemned by Egyptians and Egyptian organisations across the political spectrum, and

The Monday resignation of US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel followed President Barack Obama’s curious clarification of his stance on Syrian President Bashar Assad. Addressing media on November 16, on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, Obama dismissed t

Pundits who dismiss the contention that Palestinians have launched their third Intifada in 27 years were proven wrong on Tuesday when two men armed with meat cleavers and a pistol killed five people and wounded eight in a Jerusalem synagogue. The two attackers were shot dead at

US mid-term congressional elections have rendered President Barack Obama a “lame duck”, a weak executive without enough political clout to carry out his domestic or foreign policy agendas. He will face a legislature controlled by the opposition Republican Party when

The US is fighting a “phoney war” against Daesh in Iraq and Syria because it is using minimal force against an enemy that has taken over about 30 per cent of the territory of Syria and 40 per cent of Iraq. Daesh (known as the Islamic State) troops are entrenched in c

An Iraqi friend I met in London over dinner remarked: “My country is gone, finished… and Syria is gone as well.” The toxic combination of Bush wars, terrible policies adopted by the international community and the rise of radical fundamentalism have doomed the