Faisal Al Yafai

What looks like power play from outside the kingdom is seen as necessary reform within it, writes Faisal Al Yafai

The targeting of the Taj Mahal by Hindu nationalists denigrates the history of an entire continent, writes Faisal Al Yafai

The blame for the loss of Kirkuk must be placed at the feet of Kurdistan's leader, writes Faisal Al Yafai. His combative politics have set Kurdish independence back years

If Iraqi Kurdistan becomes independent, it will take the title of the world’s newest country from its African neighbour, but as history shows, things may very well take a turn for the worse

Both Erbil and Catalonia have pushed too far, too fast for independence and damaged their movements. But there is still a way out, writes Faisal Al Yafai

Two years after Moscow's intervention, the Assad regime looks secure. But it is terrorism, not Russia's backing, that will see Damascus gain respectability again, writes Faisal Al Yafai

Fifteen years after the “axis of evil” speech, another US president has threatened Iran and North Korea. What will be different this time?

Barzani is pushing too hard, too fast for independence – and in the process, sabotaging what it has taken the Kurds decades to build

Nearly a quarter of a century after the Oslo Accords, the peace process may be a historical fact, but it is a modern political fiction

What seem like questions of history are actually profoundly rooted in the society and politics of the moment, writes Faisal Al Yafai

It was war, not Islam, that halted the development of the country, writes Faisal Al Yafai

Assad may be lionised among American neo-Nazis, but he is also admired on the fringes of the far-left, writes Faisal Al Yafai

Politicians in western nations rarely resort to threatening language – chiefly because that threat is regularly demonstrated in real wars, writes Faisal Al Yafai

A new survey of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan found that a majority don’t believe they will ever return home. That loss of hope will pose a significant challenge for the Middle East and Europe, as big as the war itself

Among the specific clauses in the law against domestic abuse is a larger point, one that will be keenly watched far beyond North Africa: how far the role of the state can go in creating women’s rights