Standing on a podium on Saturday to take an oath of office, Bashar al-Assad declared himself the only man who could rebuild Syria. His first foreign guest, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, seemed to enhance his claim, endorsing the president’s win in a May poll described by...

When Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman embraced Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad al Thani in the Saudi city of Al-Ula on Jan. 5, hopes were raised that this could finally improve a fractured relationship that had long hindered Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) unity. Six months...

The 13th presidential election held in Iran on June 18 witnessed a lowest ever voter turnout in the electoral history of country. Further while 48.8% voters turned at polling booths, nearly four million of them cast blank votes. Besides low turnout, election of Ebrahim Raeisi, the...

With the swearing-in of Israel’s new coalition government that ended the 12-year tenure of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, attention has now been drawn to the possibility of reviving the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that have been halted since April 2014. Peace talks between...