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Iran treats its Sunnis perfectly. They are born with silver spoons in their mouths, get everything they demand and their homes are adorned with silk amid a utopia of love, freedom and privilege. Let's assume it's all true. So what? You think any of that is relevant? You think Iran wins...

I haven't read through the thread, and frankly am not particularly interested. Instead, I'm just replying to the thread title in a personal capacity. Personally, I (I'm an Arab) was absolutely devastated at the news out of Peshawar. In fact, I went on a bit of a rant on Twitter that I haven't...

Example of the work being done at KAUST.

Really like the 'Ahl Awwal' song; manages to combine between traditional and contemporary, which is interesting and has some depth. As for Amr Diab and Balqees, I try to keep away from modern pop out of principle. :p: By the way, you familiar with Lena Chemamyan? She has incredible vocals and...

Good way to push down that pesky 'debt to GDP' ratio for some of the European countries and meet EU fiscal requirements. So, with the Chinese revision, what's the new nominal value of its GDP?

Conservatism can be principled and deep, or it can be reactionary and shallow. Unfortunately, in much of the Muslim World, it is very often the latter. The scholars need to return to the dynamism of Islamic jurisprudence and bring an intellectual depth back to it. That does not have to be in...

For one thing, there aren't many people who know Hebrew that would be willing to undertake a project like that. I've studied Hebrew in the past (at a basic level), and there just isn't that much out there.

KAUST will take some time to establish itself and realise its potential. But looks like it's getting off to a very solid start and doing well to target research students, especially by the way of scholarships and incentives. Hopefully all GCC countries invest sufficiently in science and...

Terrific news. KSA's navy is sub-par relative to the rest of its armed forces, and this shows there's serious commitment to rectify that both in the medium and long term.

Syria, Iraq and Lebanon will not hold in Iran's hands. Sunni Muslims are the demographic majority and the historic establishment in the Arab Mashriq, and over the past three years have slowly thrown off Iranian hegemony: Assad has lost most of his country and is resting his hopes on a minority...

Saudi-French relations are on an upward trajectory, even from the high levels they're already at. Result of American mixed messages in the region and its overtures towards Iran. Expect more pronounced military and economic cooperation between Riyadh and Paris.

Iran's strategic policy has run its course in the region and the Sunni Muslim mass and establishment has categorised Iran as an enemy, after having previously seen it as being at the forefront of the Palestinian cause. Iran's standing will not recover and its sphere of influence will not be put...

Eid Mubarak to you too bro. Insha'Allah you and your family had a good one. Yeah, you're definitely right about the geographic-historical connection with the Levant and the natural topographic link between them. Turkey, Syria and Jordan are the biggest producers in the region and considering...

Interesting you posted this. When I was in Jordan a few years ago and saw the extraordinary emphasis on olive trees and oil, I wondered why the same couldn't be replicated in north Saudi or East Egypt (Sinai) on a similar scale considering the similarity of climate and, I'm assuming, soil...

Saudi Arabia has begun receiving the first of its new AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters from Boeing, images posted online in early September appear to show. According to these pictures, at least three AH-64E helicopter have arrived in the kingdom having been transported from Boeing's...

Lebanon was doing quite well in the 60s and even had a space program that was relatively advanced for a country of its size. But, as usual, geopolitics smashed it into a thousand pieces. Seems to be the story of the modern Middle East.

Speaking of the Germans, did that Leopard tank deal officially fall through?

Boeing has been formally awarded a contract for the manufacture of 24 AH-6i Little Bird light attack/reconnaissance helicopters for Saudi Arabia. The contract, which was first revealed by Boeing in late 2013 but only announced by the US Department of Defense (DoD) on 29 August, is valued at...

$80 billion is an extraordinarily large sum. Puts KSA behind only the US and China in terms of spending. I wonder how long it'll take to manifest in confirmed procurements and noticeable R&D developments. More importantly, how long until this level of spending begins to match the kingdom's...

Lena Chamamyan - Hal Asmar al-Lawn, a traditional Syrian song. Another song, Baali Ma'aak.