Photo Credit: Reuters

New Palestinian Prime Minister Appointed

Rami Hamdallah has been appointed Prime Minister of Palestine by President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamdallah is a well-respected academic and head of al-Najah University in the West Bank city of Nablus. The recent appointment came after former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad ...

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Ros-Lehtinen to Lead House MENA Subcommittee

Photo Credit:  AP/EduardoVerdugo Former House Foreign Affairs Committee chairwoman Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) has been named to lead the new Middle East and North Africa subcommittee, and will be replaced as Foreign Affairs chairperson by Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA).  Ros-Lehtinen, the ...

Brookings Doha Center: From Bad Cop To Good Cop, The Challenge of Security Reform in Egypt

The Brookings Doha Center and Stanford Project on Arab Transitions released a November 2012 paper titled, “From Bad Cop to Good Cop: The Challenge of Security Reform in Egypt,” authored by Omar Ashour. The premise of the paper is that successful democratic transitions are dependent on the establishment of “effective civilian control of the armed forces and internal security institutions.” The main concept addressed is security sector reform (SSR), which equates ...

Photo Credit: Reuters

Marzouki Denounces Dictators, Supports International Cooperation

On September 27, Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki addressed the U.N. General Assembly calling on the international community to address "violence and extremism," while also acknowledging the economic and social problems his government inherited as a result of the ...

U.S. President Obama addresses the 67th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York

Obama Speaks on Middle East Policy at UN

On September 25, President Barack Obama spoke at the U.N. General Assembly focusing heavily on foreign policy in the Middle East. His speech addressed recent violence directed at U.S. embassies, reiterated the administration’s support for democratic reform, encouraged ...

Photo: Reuters

Libyan Militias Respond to President’s Order to Disband

Photo Credit: Reuters Following mass protests, Libyan President Mohamed al-Magarief ordered any militia that does not fall under the government’s authority to disband within 48 hours, an action praised by Secretary Hillary Clinton. The militias ...

Kuwaiti Blogger Gets Ten Years for Blasphemy

A Kuwaiti blogger was sentenced to ten years in prison Monday for insulting the Prophet Mohammad and the Sunni Muslim rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and for harming Kuwait’s interests by targeting other countries in the region. Shi'ite Muslim Hamad al-Naqi pleaded not guilty and said that he did not post the messages, and that his Twitter account had been hacked. The written verdict, delivered by Judge Hisham Abdullah, found Naqi guilty ...

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Rep. Jackson Signs Bahrain Arms Sale Resolution

Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) has joined twenty other cosponsors by signing on to H.J. Res. 80, which calls for “limiting the issuance of a letter of offer with respect to a certain proposed sale of defense articles and defense services to ...

Morocco: Incoherent Institutions and Systems

Writing at bitterlemons-international.org, Anouar Boukhars argues that Morocco and other Arab nations, "...purposefully perpetuate the political incongruence and economic 'dissonance' that is at the root of their failure...". According to Boukhars, this "incongruence" has manifested itself in the Algerian and Moroccan positions regarding the Western Sahara. "Algeria's policy has been stuck in perpetual tension between the military and the civilian branches of the government...", with the civilian branch supporting ...

POMED Notes: “Rediscovering Multilateralism: Toward a Cooperative Approach to Middle East Reform”

On Friday, the Project on Middle East Democracy, along with the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, hosted a roundtable to discuss the findings of POMED’s recent policy workshop.  The workshop, the second in a two-part series, took place over the previous two days and brought together fifteen leaders from the United States, Europe and the Middle East to explore existing multilateral frameworks designed to promote ...

Secretary Clinton Addresses Freedom

On September 11th, the Roosevelt Institute awarded Secretary Clinton the Four Freedoms Medal. In her acceptance speech, Clinton implored the United States to "forge again our commitment" to the freedoms of expression and religion and the freedoms from want and fear.  Clinton vowed "to stand firmly on the side of those who speak out" against tyranny and to "combat intolerance and discrimination everywhere." She also contended "learning to respect the faith of our neighbors should ...

Gordon Duguid, Daily Press Briefing, 3/6/09--Comments on Britain's decision to open political contacts with Hezbollah.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Remarks before meeting with Morocco Foreign Minister Taib Fassi Fihri, 4/09/09: "Well, it’s wonderful to welcome Minister Fihri here today on behalf of Morocco. We are so committed to our relationship and have very high regard for the extraordinary progress that has taken place in Morocco over the last years, and we look forward to deepening and strengthening our relationship."

Secretary Hillary Clinton, Interview With Randa Aboul Azem of Al Arabiya, 3/2/2009: QUESTION: On another issue, the State Department issued a report about criticizing the human rights record of Egypt. And what kind of – in order for Egypt to enhance its record, what do you recommend or ask Egypt to do? SECRETARY CLINTON: We issue these reports on every country. We consider Egypt to be a friend and we engage in ...

Acting Deputy State Department Spokesman Gordon Duguid, Daily Press Briefing, 1/19/2009: "We welcome the release of Ayman Nour, especially as it’s been done on medical grounds, and we view this as a positive step by the Egyptian authorities. The United States has called for this release many times in the past, and therefore, it is a good and positive move."

President Barack Obama, Inaugural Address, 1/20/2009: "To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and ...

Secretary Condoleezza Rice: Interview With Robert McMahon of Council on Foreign Relations, 12/18/2008: "I personally have advocated strongly for democratic reform in Egypt. Egypt is going to be better off and, in fact, more stable ultimately when Egypt trusts its people more. And I do believe that the presidential election was a different kind of election than Egypt had ever had. There was criticism of the president’s policies right on ...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Comments to State Department advisory committee on democracy promotion, 10/8/08: "It has been very hard in Egypt. The progress has not been everything in Egypt that we would have hoped for. We have had setbacks there, we have had disappointments there. It is very hard when I have to sit in front of young democracy advocates and have them say 'Why have you not been ...

Former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt, Francis Ricciardone, Interview with Middle East Bulletin, 5/08

Representative Gary L. Ackerman (D-N.Y.), Hearing of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, ("Update on the Situation in Lebanon"), 7/29/08: Comments on how the Doha Agreement is, at best, a beginning to a political solution and that Hezbollah's insurrection "forced a new and unjust status quo."

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