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In recent weeks, the US has shifted the focus of its awesome arsenal of air and missile power to Yugoslavia. This shift necessitated the transfer of some aircraft from Turkish bases, from where they were operating over northern Iraq. Nonetheless, the programme of US air strikes on Iraq has persisted.

The Iraqi opposition gathering held in New York at the end of last month was meant to relaunch a fragmented opposition and to demonstrate commitment to a newly energised movement against Saddam. It is little surprise that the meeting failed to achieve its goals. Rather than

Internet connectivity has grown very slowly in the Middle East and the Gulf but every country in the region, bar Iraq and Libya, now provides some form of connectivity for citizens. Part of the reason for the slow growth has been technical and economic but

Iran and the Europeans proclaimed it a victory. American hardliners spoke of a humiliation. President Clinton trod carefully and sought to appease all audiences. Such was the confused reaction to the US-EU deal last month that waived US sanctions on Total under the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA).

The Republic of Yemen has most of the trappings of a modern nation state. Since the Civil War it has a unified territory, one government, one army and all the bureaucratic apparatus that a modern state should have. With the encouragement of international bodies such as the IMF and World Bank it has even been reforming its legal system to improve efficiency

Kuwait’s Crown Prince and Primc Minister, Sheikh Sa’ad al Abdullah al Sabah, who last month tendered the resignation of his cabinet, has formed a new government with pretty much the mixture as before. In the process Sheikh Sa’adhas demonstrated once again that, whatever may

Even as Mohammed Khatami's Iran recreates itself as a moderate member of the international community, Tehran is in the disturbing paradox of being itself threatened by religious zealots on its borders. The Taleban's victorious sweep through northern Afghanistan is a dramatic setback to Iran's foreign policy. Moreover, it poses immediate security threats to the Islamic Republic.

As expected, the INC visit to Washington at the end of last month resulted in promises of limited US aid and further exhortations from the US Administration that the opposition unif and organise itself. For now, though, there seems little prospect of the US providing direct military support to the exiled opposition.

King Hussein of Jordan has been feeling pressure. Although he is used to having tread a fine line between his various internal constituencies and his dangerous neighbours,recent months have been exceptionally stressful. His calculated outburst on Orbit satellite TV at the end of February, when he called on the USA to open a dialogue with Iraq, is a reflection of the ..........

The bombings of the US embassies in East Africa and the subsequent US attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan again brought to prominence in the Western media the figure of Osama Bin Laden. Although much ink has been spilt writing about him, many details of his background and associations, former and present, remain unclear.

The Gulf Arab states will have watched the recent parliamentary elections in Iran with more than just neighbourly interest. The high turnout of the electorate was a solid reminder of the democratic process at work in the Islamic Republic and the regional implications of a spread of democracy will not have been lost on the traditonal Arab governments of the area.

Iran’s rightist faction has employed a wide array of tools in recent weeks. The constitutional bodies they dominate, including the Assembly of Experts, the Expediency Council and the Guardian Council have used every means at their disposal to negate the reformist victory in the Majlis elections and seek an extension of the current conservative

Tracking the innocuous air defence war over Iraq is not an activity that many journalists stick with for long. To the short-term observer nothing much changes and little of value can be confirmed. Just occasionally, however, the conflict offers fruitful insights into the political dimension of the ongoing conflict with Iraq. In

The US State Department’s Patterns of Global Terrorism 1999 presents a satisfying picture of the containment of global and Middle Eastern terrorism. In contrast to the 1998 report there were no mass casualty attacks, whilst the encouraging trends displayed in that report - effective counterterrorist activities pushing terrorism into the lawless fringes of world society – continued.

During the closing months of the Christian century organisations world-wide have worked feverishly to prepare for the ‘Millennium Bug’ by making themselves Y2K compliant. Public and private sector organisations in the Gulf states are no exception. Though Internet access and E-commerce are both relatively new features in the Gulf, date-reliant embedded