More than most, South Africa is expected to be a defender and a promoter of human rights, because of its past. The country has the potential to lead the way in pushing for a more democratic international order. A contribution to the openGlobalRights debate on Emerging Powers and Human Rights. Espa
Más de la mayoría, Sudáfrica, se espera sea un defensor y promotor de derechos humanos, gracias a su pasado. El país tiene el potencial de marcar el camino para un orden internacional más democrático.
The red line threshold has finally been crossed – but on unverified intelligence, encouraged by appetites for military intervention. It is Iraq all over again.
Despite it all, Hezbollah remains a key constituent of the weak and de-facto decentralised state - the legitimate representative of the overwhelming majority of Lebanese Shiites and the ally of the largest Christian Party in the country.
Those familiar with Syria before the conflict would recognize that xenophobic sentiments are contrary to the cultural DNA of Syria. But fears of difference have become much more entrenched as a result of the bloody conflict and the absence of a just authority.
Arab Awakening's columnists offer their weekly perspective on what is happening on the ground in the Middle East. Leading the week, Why use violence against peaceful protesters?
Let’s be clear here, Qatar lost in Qusair. It is embarrassing and undermines two years and $3bn of financial support to the rebel movement. And it is time that Qatar began to take some responsibility for things Qaradawi has said, and is saying with regards to Syria.
The potential for arms to be used against Syrian civilians who have suffered most throughout the two years of civil war is not among the primary considerations of the arms-exporting west. One may wonder whether it is of any concern at all.
When the Assad regime is ultimately defeated, Hezbollah will have lost the majority of its military hardware, a significant portion of its forces, and its political clout in Lebanon.
Their actions in Al-Qusayr hurl them far closer to the category of regional militant force, as the architects of a new framework of Middle Eastern skirmishes, in which Sunnis and Shiites become the crucial axis of antagonism, rather than nation states.
While the Geneva talks, if they are actually held, are tipped to fail, a political settlement may well be the only hope, not only for Syria, but also for the region.
The young men of the Lebanese “Islamic Resistance”, who today participate – based on the confirmation of their leader Hassan Nasrallah – in the Syrian massacres, are not aware of what recent history holds of shelter offered, hospitality, and the sharing of pain and dreams.
