Articles from the author

Tomorrow's presidential election in the United States is going to have a direct bearing on the Middle East situation, given the fact that the incumbent American president leaves the process unfinished.

American Secretary of Defence William Cohen is on his last tour of the Middle East before he leaves office in January next year. His whirlwind tour of the region, which he has been undertaking twice a year, is taking him to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Egypt, Jordan and Israel.

A grand multi-nation coalition is in the process of being clobbered together, led by the United States. It is expected to include the newly fanged Russia, its Central Asian allies, and Nato countries.

Pakistan's announcement that it is going to exercise "maximum restraint" on the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir marks the first major positive development on the volatile Kashmir issue since the Lahore summit between the leaders of Pakistan and India in February 1999.

For Pakistan, it was a bombshell which burst without much warning. Within 24 hours of the news breaking, Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister sentenced to life imprisonment, was a free man and jetting off to Saudi Arabia.

The Bush presidency has finally arrived and the world is bracing for a more aggressive but less intrusive America. On Saturday Bush announced the appointment of Colin Powell as his Secretary of State, the first African-American to occupy this high office. Powell, a widely respected personality, laid out his vision of America's foreign policy in his speech after his appointment.

A Gulf News Online poll on the query "Should Benazir Bhutto now return to Pakistan" has come up with a dead even match of 46.4 per cent. For Benazir this may not be a surprise since she is faced with the same dilemma: to go or not to go.

George W. Bush is showing his true colours. Within three months of occupying the White House, he has picked a fight with China over the aircraft incident, rubbed Russia the wrong way with insistence on National Missile Defence, needlessly provoked his Arab allies by nakedly supporting Israel's repression of Palestinians...

Violence in the Occupied Territories of West Bank and Gaza Strip is increasing with each passing day. Israel has now introduced the use of tanks to blast away Palestinian houses and ground attacks are becoming more frequent.

Any discussion on security of the Gulf region invariably comes around to Iran and Iraq and the threat they pose to the region.

Our Associate Editor Today Palestinians are observing the anniversary of nakba or catastrophe to mark the creation on May 15, 1948, of the state of Israel.

In a belated move, foreign ministers of Arab countries have recommended the severing of all contacts with Israel till it ceases military action against Palestinians.