News, economy and analysis from across the Middle East
A Presbyterian minister and scholar, Donald Wagner spent decades urging American evangelicals to see Palestinian Christians, and Palestinians generally, as part of the story of the Holy Land.
CNN's Beirut bureau chief was kidnapped by Hezbollah-linked militants in 1984. What he did after his escape surprised many who knew his story.
Writer, educator and village advocate, Maria Khoury has spent decades describing life in the West Bank's Christian village of Taybeh to readers around the world.
A co-founder of the human rights group Al-Haq, Jonathan Kuttab has spent a lifetime arguing for international law and nonviolence as the path to justice in Palestine.
The uprisings of 2011 seemed to come from nowhere. In fact they drew on years of organising, economic grievance and a few crucial sparks.
A Saudi poet writing in English gives voice to women, faith and change in the kingdom, years before reform became official policy.
Columbia University's Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies is one of the most influential historians of Palestine, and a frequent target in America's political arguments about the Middle East.
For almost three years, the Palestinian leader was confined to his battered compound in Ramallah. His isolation shaped the end of his life and the succession that followed.
In 2011 an Iraqi court sentenced fifteen men to death for the massacre of dozens of people at a wedding during the sectarian war. The case illustrated both the scale of the violence and the shortcomings of Iraqi justice.
In 2011, Yemen's long-ruling president repeatedly promised to hand over power, then backed away. The deal he finally signed led not to stability but to war.
Thirty-four days of war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 ended with neither side achieving its aims. The Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab was among those who drew a simple conclusion: force alone would not solve the region's conflicts.
Stolen fuel, corruption and mismanagement have kept Iraq's electricity sector failing for two decades, despite tens of billions of dollars in spending.
A country-by-country guide to the uprisings of 2011, and where each ended up.
Iran's combative president of 2005–2013 was often dismissed as a provocateur. His years in office reshaped Iran's nuclear standoff, its economy and its internal politics.
A guide to the agreements, declarations and resolutions that are cited again and again in the region's conflicts.
In 2011 European governments repeatedly tried to get the UN Security Council to condemn Syria's crackdown. Russian and Chinese vetoes set a pattern that lasted the whole war.
In June 2011 France acknowledged airdropping weapons to rebels in Libya's western mountains, raising questions about the limits of the UN mandate.
"I will bless those who bless you." Few verses are quoted more often in debates about Christians and Israel. Palestinian theologians read it very differently.
Since 2008, activists have repeatedly sailed toward Gaza to challenge the blockade. Israel has stopped every flotilla, and the 2010 raid on the Mavi Marmara still shapes the debate.
In July 2011, hundreds of activists tried to fly into Israel on their way to the West Bank. The 'flytilla' ended with detentions and deportations, and a debate about who controls access to the Palestinian territories.
Journalist, columnist and founder of independent media in Palestine and Jordan, Daoud Kuttab has spent four decades fighting for free expression in the Arab world.
Every autumn, Israeli and international volunteers join Palestinian farmers in their olive groves, hoping their presence will deter attacks by settlers.
Iraq's state cement makers profited from the post-war construction boom. Their story shows both the potential and the problems of Iraq's state-owned industry.
In the summer of 2011, the Assad government offered a 'national dialogue' while its forces kept shooting protesters. The opposition's refusal to take part set the course for years of failed talks.
In the autumn of 2004, Israel launched its largest operation in Gaza since the start of the second intifada. Its name, and its toll, drew bitter criticism.
The 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister triggered a revolution, a UN investigation and a special international court. Fifteen years later, the court named one culprit, and left the bigger questions open.
In May 2004 Israeli forces swept into Rafah in southern Gaza to destroy smuggling tunnels. Hundreds of homes were demolished. A year on, families were still asking why.
Muammar Gadhafi was captured alive near Sirte on 20 October 2011 and died within hours. How he died became the subject of competing accounts.
Western media called him a madman; others remembered an anti-colonial strongman. The way the world described Gadhafi's fall said as much about the observers as about Libya.
Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz died in October 2011, setting off the first of several rapid changes in Saudi Arabia's line of succession.