AboutArticles by Michael Jansen

Failure to impress

01 Oct 2021

US President Joe Biden’s job approval rating has fallen dramatically in two months. According to a Pew research poll only 44 per cent of adults approve of his performance while...

Reconciliation, not rivalry, marks region’s politics

26 Sep 2021

The gradual US disengagement from this region in favour of a pivot toward Asia has launched a process of reconciliation among countries which have been estranged by competition and rivalries....

Faces of resilience

23 Sep 2021

Palestinian icons Muna and Mohammed al-Kurd are among leaders, artists, and personalities on Time Magazine’s annual list of 100 most-influential people in the world. Born on May 15th, 1998, the...

New Iran govt may recommit to N-deal

19 Sep 2021

In anticipation of the resumption of the Vienna talks on rescuing the 2015 agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, the new hardline government in Tehran has...

On deaf ears

16 Sep 2021

Defending the Taliban’s appointment of an all male caretaker cabinet, the movement’s spokesman Zikrullah Hashemi told Tolo news, «A woman can›t be a minister, «It›s like you put something on her neck that she...

Dangerous myths surrounding 9/11 attacks

12 Sep 2021

The September 11th, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington have inspired dangerous myths which have driven the never-ending “war on terrorism,” destroyed several countries in the Wider Middle East,...

Plotting their escape

09 Sep 2021

My friend Nada is planning her retreat from Beirut. She has renewed her French passport which gives her exile options, vaccinated, and microchipped her cat ahead of their voyage, and asked her...

US war pushes 90% of Afghans into poverty

05 Sep 2021

Once the US withdrawal from Afghanistan was complete, US President Joe Biden proclaimed an end to the two decade US-led war in that country as well as an end to...

A conspiracy of silence

02 Sep 2021

For 54 years there has been a conspiracy of silence over the motive of Sirhan Sirhan who shot US presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy in the crowded serving kitchen passage of...

Kabul: An uncertain future laden with risks

29 Aug 2021

US President Joe Biden has claimed a US drone strike eliminated a Daesh-Khorasan (Daesh-K) “planner” and a “facilitator” and wounded another person in his effort to exact revenge for the...

Michael Jansen

The author, a well-respected observer of Middle East affairs, has three books on the Arab-Israeli conflict.