The Kurdistan region is clearly thriving as the safest, most stable, and prosperous part of Iraq, with a headstart of 12 years of relative freedom from Saddam. The number of deaths through terrorism is about 200 since 2003. It has built a major energy sector from nothing in just a few years. And it has helped stabilise the rest of Iraq and could be a model for it to follow.

As the hell of Syria's ongoing and increasingly intractable internal conflict continues to play out, the announcement by newly installed US Secretary of State John Kerry that the US is to step up its support for the Syrian opposition with $60 million in 'non-military' aid should leave nobody in any doubt that the day of western military intervention in the conflict fast approaches.

Ultimately there can be no solution to the Israeli-Palestine question 'from above.'

Economic sanctions incur significant economic losses for all parties. Provided they are successful, they nevertheless represent the least bad way forward in relation to Iran. And to give diplomacy a real chance of success, they have to be efficient and effective.

New freight and passenger lines between, say, Basra, Baghdad, Kirkuk, Dohuk and Ceyhan in Turkey would drive new markets and knit people together wherever the borders are. And Iraq would be the transport hub of the whole region.

John Kerry has indicated the United States is prepared to step up its assistance to the Syrian opposition movement, following the latest deadly rocket...

What is so abhorrent to George Galloway about conversing with an Israeli? Why is he so adamant that the Israeli should not be seen; that the Israeli should not be heard?

These protests have not been like the events of two years ago. What has been occurring in Tunisia can be split into two separate groups: honest protesters calling for the removal of a government that they believe encouraged the murder of Chokri Belaid, and rioters attempting to benefit from the state of crisis.

A New Zealand politician who sparked condemnation for suggesting Muslim men should be banned on Western airlines will not stand down. Writing in h...

Political scientist, activist and author of the Holocaust Industry and Beyond Chutzpah, the famous Dr. Norman Finkelstein was in Belgium, to talk abou...

Recent popular movements across the Arab world have taught us that young people want economic opportunity. They want a pathway to find jobs and pursue their passions. And as populations soar throughout the Middle East, the need for economic opportunity will grow even stronger.

Call me an idealist, but people need to reflect upon their motivation, on where they get their kicks, on what is really driving them in conflict before they embark on violence with all its negative consequences for themselves and others.

Anyone who read about the Israeli elections in the UK media in the past week will have been told that Israel was set to choose its most right-wing government ever, and that the star was a young, right-wing nationalist named Naftali Bennett. Oops.

The attacks on Algerian gas installations and the Mali insurgency has led the UK Prime Minister to describe this as a 'generational struggle'. However, what is happening across the Sahel region is a different terrorist challenge altogether, requiring a reappraisal in strategy.

An important question needs to be asked: is the Likud party really interested in peace?

When the heat dies down over the siege in In Amenas, it will be back to business for the West, propping up the Algerian authorities in defence of Western interests.

As a Palestinian man once said to me, Jews and Arabs are 'brothers with different mothers', and since the settlers returned to Hebron after the Six Day War, the 'Children of Abraham' have been conducting an experiment in power-sharing in the city of their birth.