Qifa Nabki
Syria
Saving Lebanon’s Syrian-Saudi-Qatari-Turkish Initiative
It’s been another marathon day for political deal-making in Lebanon. As recently as this morning, the Syrian-Saudi initiative remained dead and buried, only to be resurrected under Qatari-Turkish stewardship (and French oversight) by the afternoon. Tomorrow, we may see the Brazilians and the Russians tossing their hats in the ring, and before you know it, … Continue reading
OneMideast.org Launches
I’m pleased to announce the launch of OneMideast.org, a website that has been in development for about a year now. Here’s the skinny on it: OneMideast.org is an online discussion arena intended for raising and debating ideas central to the Arab-Israeli peace process. The project, which represents the first joint Syrian-Israeli online dialogue of its … Continue reading
SCUD-D vs. Fateh-110
The Syria-Hizbullah-SCUD crisis has generated an incredible amount of press in the last week. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman was dressed down yesterday before Congress for defending Obama’s engagement policy with Syria, and Foreign Policy alone has carried something like three opinion pieces about the issue just in the past couple of days. (For … Continue reading
Scudding Right Along
DAMASCUS, Syria — U.S. and Israeli officials have reacted negatively to reports that Syria has transferred Scud missiles to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Israel has called the development a “game-changing” move by Syria which has the potential to tip the region into a military conflagration. “Syria claims it wants peace while at the same … Continue reading
Axis(tential) Questions
A couple of days ago, I sat in on a lecture about Nasser’s foreign policy in the 1950’s-60’s, and the importance of regional axes in the Cold War world. It left me wondering about the extent to which we still live in such a world today, at least as far as Middle East politics are … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…