Arab Spring

Could the Covid crash spark another Arab Spring?

23 April 2020 2:26 am

They said we were going to uncouple from the Middle East. Barack Obama, they said, was going to pivot to…

Ten years on, the Arab Spring has only benefited the Islamists

24 January 2020 10:00 pm

Ten years on, the Arab Spring’s legacy is hopelessness and helplessness

Former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and his wife Anisa with his children (l-r) Maher, Bashar, Bassel, Majd and Bushra. Photo: Louai Beshara/ AFP/ Getty Images

How did mild-mannered eye doctor Bashar al-Assad end up a mass murderer?

27 October 2018 9:00 am

‘How did this mild-mannered eye doctor end up killing hundreds of thousands of people?’ someone wondered about Bashar al-Assad in…

Christina Lamb’s diary: Meeting the mother of the Sousse killer

11 July 2015 9:00 am

One strange consequence of my job as a foreign correspondent is discovering beautiful places when terrible things happen in them.…

Let's fight terror - by holidaying in gorgeous, welcoming Tunisia

4 July 2015 9:00 am

It needs – and deserves – British visitors more than ever

Does history provide the answer to what happened in Tunisia?

4 July 2015 9:00 am

There’s a part of me that thinks OK, we’ve heard enough now, one year on from the beginning of the…

Libya is what happens when we try to bomb things better

13 June 2015 9:00 am

Call me petulant, but I’m not sure Britain is getting enough credit for our fine, fine work in Libya. The…

My Twelve to Follow are seven up

16 May 2015 9:00 am

Back on political duty with CNN in election week, I came across a dead rat in Downing Street. It had…

Why BBC Arabic is booming

7 February 2015 9:00 am

Last weekend BBC Arabic celebrated 77 years since John Reith (as he then was) launched the first foreign-language service of…

If we have to let generals run Egypt, must we pay for them, too?

31 May 2014 9:00 am

America has let Egypt’s old military oligarchs take hold again. Must it carry on paying for them, too?

Leave Ukraine to the Russians

8 March 2014 9:00 am

‘You can’t always get what you want,’ chorused Mick Jagger, ‘but if you try some time/You just might find/You get…

Egyptian supporters of the deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi (back) clash with riot police in Cairo early on July 27, 2013. Mass rallies by supporters and opponents of Mohamed Morsi swept Egypt Friday, as the authorities formally detained the ousted Islamist president accusing him of conspiring with the Palestinian group Hamas. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit:STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood should have learnt from Nasser

3 August 2013 9:00 am

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood should have learnt from Nasser

Mind your language: The springs before the Arab Spring

3 August 2013 9:00 am

Two hundred and forty-years ago next Tuesday, Thomas Gray was buried in his mother’s grave in Stoke Poges churchyard. In…

What the Arab world really wants

13 July 2013 9:00 am

Middle East protest has its roots not in Islam but in frustrated enterprise

Egypt shows us that elections aren’t enough

6 July 2013 9:00 am

Democracy and holding elections are not the same thing. There could be no better demonstration of this than the experience…