Middle East

The young T.E. Lawrence in Arab dress

Secretive, arrogant and reckless: the young T.E. Lawrence began life as he meant to go on

11 October 2014 9:00 am

The Lawrence books are piling up, aren’t they? I don’t mean the author of The Rainbow, though as I write…

What will it take for us to stop doing business with Qatar?

4 October 2014 9:00 am

Qatari money has flooded into London – but also into much less savoury places

The wars that really are about the oil

30 August 2014 9:00 am

You can’t understand any of the world’s crises without understanding petropolitics

Asylum seekers are dying in British ports. It’s time we looked after them properly.

23 August 2014 9:00 am

The tale is now familiar: shouts are heard from inside a freight container and police are called. A cargo of…

David Frum’s diary: When Hamas shoots at Israel, they’re shooting at my kid

9 August 2014 9:00 am

 Wellington, Ontario A British visitor to this village might be disoriented by the flags. They look almost exactly like the…

Spectator letters: A defence of nursing assistants, a mystery shotgun, and a response to Melanie Phillips

9 August 2014 9:00 am

Poor treatment Sir: Jane Kelly’s article (‘No tea or sympathy’, 2 August) on the lack of empathy and emotional support…

You’ll mock me, but I have to ask: why don’t any of my friends have holiday homes?

9 August 2014 9:00 am

This is to be one of those columns that makes the writer faintly wish there wasn’t an internet. It would…

Israel is drifting away from the West – but condemnation won’t help

12 July 2014 9:00 am

Glaring, the ennui over Israel. The way we drag our eyes to the page, and sigh, and want to read…

I like the look of this exciting new Islamic State. But why don’t they want Belgium?

5 July 2014 9:00 am

There is something attractive about almost the whole of southern Europe being part of an immense and somewhat rigorous caliphate,…

After 100 years, the mess we made of the Middle East is coming full circle

28 June 2014 9:00 am

When I hear the words Sykes-Picot I more often than not feel like punching an Englishman or a Frog —…

The only trouble with Tel Aviv – flying there doesn’t feel scary any more

21 June 2014 8:00 am

‘There’s a dark cloud rising from the desert floor/ I packed my bags and I’m heading straight into the storm/…

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?

A Colder War, by Charles Cumming - review

31 May 2014 9:00 am

The title of Charles Cumming’s seventh novel is both a nod to the comfortable polarities of Cold War and also…

Libya is imploding. Why doesn't David Cameron care?

15 March 2014 9:00 am

A few days ago I went to a talk about Syria; one of those events for the concerned layman, in…

Israelis don’t care that we hate them. But they’d like to know why

15 March 2014 9:00 am

Israelis’ theories on why it’s fashionable for the West to despise them

Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Middle East's 30 year war

25 January 2014 9:00 am

Sunni vs Shia, Saudi Arabia vs Iran. A new great war has begun

The one man who makes me hope for peace in Syria

18 January 2014 9:00 am

As Syria’s second peace conference looms, and we prepare ourselves for a lot of hot air drifting over from Geneva,…

Act now to save the Middle East's Christians

14 December 2013 9:00 am

The Middle East’s most persecuted people need our support

Norman Stone: From Syria to Iraq, the mess of the first world war is with us still

14 December 2013 9:00 am

So many of the world’s troubles, even today, can be traced back to the empire-builders of 1914 – and the peace-makers of 1919

Taki: our leaders are weak and powerless in the face of religious fanatics

14 December 2013 9:00 am

This Christmas our thoughts need to be with our fellow Christians who are being threatened in the Bible lands. No…

Taki: My main gripe with Gaddafi is the quality of his cocaine

12 October 2013 9:00 am

 New York Libyans are among the most civilised people on earth. When a Russian hooker (I assume) killed a Libyan…

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…

As an Anglican ex-bishop, I can tell you: Iran's new president could be our best hope for peace

27 July 2013 9:00 am

If President Hassan Rouhani is anything like his mentor, peace has another chance

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