The United States has launched a web-based “embassy” in both English and Farsi in what observers have called "a bid to promote dialogue with the Iranian people in the absence of formal diplomatic ties." The ...

In an interview with the BBC Afrique, Moncef Marzouki, a human rights activist from the centre-left secular Congress for the Republic party and a presidential favorite, said Tunisia "will not accept any kind of dictatorship, this country will ...

Amnesty International released a report criticizing a draft law in Saudi Arabia that would allow "peaceful acts of dissent" to be prosecuted as "terrorist crime." The report, entitled Saudi Arabia: Repression in the Name of Security,

During a recent meeting in Cairo, Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Meshaal, the leaders of Fatah and Hamas, set a timetable for Palestinian national elections. The elections are slated to take place May 4, 2012, in a bid to help "end the division between Hamas and ...

According to reports, equipment from the US-based company Hewlett-Packard Co. is "underpinning a surveillance system being built to monitor e-mails and Internet use" by the Assad Regime. The installation "would run a Damascus monitoring center for Syrian ...

Thousands protested outside Manama: "Some of the protesters carried tents, suggesting an attempt to occupy the site in A'ali, about 1.5 miles  southeast of Manama." According to the Associated Press, security forces  "did not make an immediate attempt to ...

The Working Group on Egypt, a nonpartisan initiative aimed at shaping an effective U.S. policy response to Egypt’s transition, released a statement calling on the U.S. Congress to attach conditionality to Egypt's future military aid. The statement suggests that ...

Battles between rival militias raged outside Tripoli Sunday "in the most sustained violence since the capture and killing of" Gadhafi, resulting in six deaths. The fighting brought concern over the TNC's efforts to round up loose weapons ...

In an article for the Council on Foreign Relations, Ed Husain argues that the Muslim Brotherhood's practice of offering free food and social services to Egyptians "smacks of bribery and corruption when used at election time to gain ...

Speaking at a National Democratic Institute dinner honoring activists for democracy and human rights, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed foreign policy in the wake of the Arab Spring. Clinton suggested that "the greatest single source of instability in today’s ...

In a testimony given before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Women’s Issues and Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and the Deputy ...

A group called Egypt Above All has "launched a campaign that calls upon Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi to run for president... under the slogan "A popular demand for stability." Egyptian activists fear that the SCAF "is reversing ...

Thousands of Moroccans demonstrated in dozens of cities calling for a boycott of upcoming parliamentary elections. The pro-democracy activists contend that the elections will only give credibility to an undemocratic regime. The protests are the latest in a ...

  Senator John McCain declared that with the death of Gadhafi, "the Libyan people can focus all of their immense talents on strengthening their national unity, rebuilding their country and economy, proceeding with their democratic transition, and safeguarding the ...

  State Department spokesman Mark Toner stated “Ambassador Robert Ford was brought back to Washington as a result of credible threats against his personal safety in Syria.” The Associated Press reported that Ambassador Robert Ford returned to ...