Catherine Shakdam

If Saudi Arabia still appears an island of political stability amid raging waters – at least to the naked eye, the kingdom has been plagued by great many turmoil; not least of all Yemen’s war, and the ever growing ambition of…

Forget Damascus and forget President Bashar al-Assad’s seat of power – the real battle for Syria is being played out in the northern city of Aleppo, where Turkey dared dream it would revive its empire of old. Ankara here, is in for a rude…

Western capitals are in quite a pickle those days … years of careful planning and political manoeuvring stand now to be laid waste by Damascus and its army’s blind determination to see gone Daesh militants. Should you…

As Iraq struggles against Daesh, ethno-sectarian tensions in northern Iraq threatens to throw off the country’s tentative national alliance against radicalism. Eaten away by religious bias, and deep-seated ethnic rancour Iraq stands now to lose…

While there is no love lost in between Saudi Arabia and Yemen – not since the kingdom decided to play target practice with the impoverished nation, in the name of geopolitical scoring and a burning ambition to seize control over…

Saudi Arabia King Salman visited Egypt this weekend – a move most media hailed as a sign of rapprochement in between the two powers, a positive development which will undoubtedly allow for better cooperation, and thus security in…

Revolution’s fire is burning bright in the Levant and its winds are infectious. From Lebanon to Beirut and beyond, Manama, the Middle East is once more holding its breath before the defiance of its youth. This time around…

While many world nations remain under the impression that Washington and its regional allies in the Middle East – Saudi Arabia in the lead, are indeed conducting just wars in the region, fighting and opposing the rise of Wahhabi radicalism, it is really East they…

If from the onset of the war on Yemen back in March 25, Saudi Arabia unilaterally proclaimed its desire to “liberate” the country from under the influence of the Houthis to restore, Yemen’s political legitimacy in the person of once-resigned-twice-runaway…

Although ISIS has certainly been sold as an Islamic movement, everything it professes and teaches stands against Islam and its teachings. This divide actually goes beyond Islam’s great schism – which schism it needs to be…

Almost two months into its war against Yemen – one change of strategy and two ceasefires later – and Saudi Arabia appears nowhere near achieving any of its goals in this poorest and certainly most unruly nation of the Arabian Peninsula. But since…

If the Middle East has lived under the guise of western oligarchs since the fall of the Ottoman Empire (WWIDahJTkfw, held hostage to foreign powers’ will and desire to rule and control some of the world’s most precious natural resources: oil, gas and minerals, Washington…