U.S. Suspends More Military Aid to Egypt, Arousing Scepticism

by Jim Lobe via IPS News The administration of President Barack Obama announced Wednesday it was freezing hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Egyptian military pending “credible progress” toward a return to democratic rule.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Is Not Going Away

by Jasmin Ramsey Almost 1,000 Egyptians have died, according to the official count, since Aug. 14 when Egypt’s armed forces began clamping down on Muslim Brotherhood-led protests against the military ouster of President Mohamed Morsi. That number well exceeds the… Continue Reading

White House Letter Fuels U.S. Involvement in Syria Debate

by Jasmin Ramsey via IPS News A White House letter Thursday to Congressional leaders suggesting chemical weapons use by the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad has reignited debate about direct U.S. military involvement in the war-torn country. “Our intelligence community does assess… Continue Reading

The Current State of Affairs in Bahrain

Lobe Log contributor Emile Nakhleh, an expert on political Islam and Middle Eastern society, recently provided a fascinating primer on Bahrain to the Bahrain Mirror (Arabic version), an e-newspaper run by Bahraini dissidents. As discussed in the Mirror’s introduction, prior to… Continue Reading

Egypt, Arab Sunni Politics, and the US: A Problematic Road Ahead

The bad news about Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s expanding constitutional powers in Egypt is the threat of another dictatorship in Egypt. The good news is that normal politics is returning to Egypt after decades of brutal authoritarian regimes. Recent mass… Continue Reading