AboutArticles by Michael Jansen

Netanyahu courts Palestinian Arabs with eye on polls

21 Mar 2021

Tomorrow’s election in Israel will be a “cliffhanger.” Polls reveal it is too close to call. Every vote will count as every Knesset seat will count in the formation of...

Protesting on produce

18 Mar 2021

A mass demonstration by farmers on the outskirts of the Indian capital has exposed just how rapidly democracy has deteriorated in the world’s largest democracy since Prime Minister ...

Tough US sanctions on Syria won’t ensure stability

14 Mar 2021

One can only hope that the Biden administration will heed the warning of UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan that punitive US sanctions on Syria undermine Arab...

Big revelations

11 Mar 2021

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan Markle, his duchess, made their case against Britain’s royals during last Sunday’s two-hour interview with Oprah Winfrey broadcast across the globe. Meghan revealed...

Pope Francis’ visit to Iraq a morale-booster

07 Mar 2021

Pope Francis has done Iraq a great service. His visit, the first ever by a Catholic pontiff, put that martyred country back on the map of world news for three...

On a mission

04 Mar 2021

Pope Francis is set to arrive in Baghdad today on the first ever visit of a Catholic pontiff to Iraq although its Christian communities are among the world’s most ancient....

American airstrikes on Syria sheer overkill

28 Feb 2021

“America is back. America is back!” proclaims US President Joe Biden. Indeed, America is back, back bombing eastern Syria. Bombing pro-Iranian militias which Biden accuses of mounting strikes on Iraqi...

Reform expected

25 Feb 2021

On Feb. 15 the World Trade Organisation (WTO) elected Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the body’s seventh director general. She is the first woman and the first African to hold this post....

Biden faces hurdles on return to Iran deal

21 Feb 2021

US President Joe Biden’s acceptance of an invitation from the European Union to attend talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal amounts to capitulation to pressure from the other six...

Rising to the challenge

18 Feb 2021

British human rights lawyer Karim Khan has been elected chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to succeed Gambia’s politically controversial Fatou Bensouda. Although previous prosecutors have been agreed...

Michael Jansen

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