Author: Gulf News Week

A fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran was brought into question on Monday, May 4, after Iran launched fresh attacks on the UAE. The long-awaited deal was brokered on April 8 — 40 days after the US, Israel and Iran traded fire in what they called preemptive and retaliatory aerial strikes. World leaders have since condemned the severe escalation in hostilities in the Middle East, which occurred during a week both Iran and the US had ramped up their war rhetoric — despite ongoing attempts to negotiate a peace proposal. Here’s a breakdown of the events that unfolded on…

The Brazilian activist explains to his little girl his motivation to join the Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla.From inside prison, Thiago dictated this letter to his lawyer:Dear Teresa,I’m sorry for not being home with you right now. Unfortunately your father, your mother, and so many people around the world understood the historical task that we have the responsibility to fulfil.Today over a million children are suffering a genocide, being starved to death, being amputated without anesthesia, and suffering from horrific, hateful ideas, despite not knowing what Zionism and imperialism is.I’m sure you miss me too much and all the mothers and fathers…

The Iran war is triggering a major economic crisis that is boosting energy profits. Taxing those can help countries survive and become immune to energy shocks.The last fossil fuel crisis caused incredible amounts of pain for the people of Europe. In 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, gas prices skyrocketed, resulting in the costs of energy rising to cripplingly high levels. Every European Union citizen overpaying for their fossil gas and power sent 150 euros ($175) to the United States per year, according to a recent report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).That pain meant unprecedented…

Resolving the conflict in Lebanon necessitates taking into account its long, layered history and new geopolitical realities.Amid a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, President Joseph Aoun is preparing for what some claim would be a “historic trip” to Washington. It appears that United States President Donald Trump may pressure him into meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. If this summit takes place, it would be the first in history.But a symbolic meeting would not be enough to resolve the conflict in Lebanon, which has deep historical roots and a wide geopolitical reach.Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to occupy parts of southern…

The US will always prioritise Israel over the Arab world. Arab unity is the only way to establish security for all.For decades, Gulf states operated under the assumption that their most important strategic partner was the United States. They built an extensive and multidimensional partnership with Washington, one that spanned security, energy, finance, and diplomacy.In launching its war alongside Israel against Iran, however, the US sidelined its Gulf partners, ignoring their appeals and concerns. Now, as the Trump administration attempts to negotiate with Iran, it again appears to have the interests of Israel as its top priority; the concerns of its…

The new establishments popping up in the devastated Strip reveal a new genocidal reality.Social media is full of posts showing off photos and videos of fancy-looking cafes and restaurants in Gaza. Pro-Israeli accounts often use these images to claim that life is back to normal in Gaza, that people are not suffering and that no genocide ever took place.These cafes and restaurants do exist. I have seen them myself.In late March, I went on my first visit to Gaza City since the war started. I was shocked to see the destruction wrought on the city. There were piles of rubble…

Italy’s prime minister once condemned the killing of Palestinian children. Today, her government’s actions reveal a foreign policy shaped less by principle than by political calculation.In 2014, during the Israeli assault on Gaza that killed more than 2,200 Palestinians, Giorgia Meloni, then just a member of the Italian parliament, wrote on social media: “Another massacre of children in Gaza. No cause is fair when it sheds the blood of the innocent.”More than a decade on, that moral clarity is nowhere to be found.As prime minister, Meloni’s remarks on Gaza have become increasingly cautious and equivocal, marked by the kind of…

Those who enthusiastically supported Iranian women’s protests against the state are eerily silent as those same women are targeted by Israeli and American missiles.Feminist attention is not neutral. It is shaped, directed, and unevenly distributed.In 2022–2023, Western feminist institutions mobilised loudly in support of protests in Iran, celebrating women’s resistance to compulsory hijab as a defining feminist struggle. Today, as war kills women and girls and destroys their access to education, that same infrastructure has fallen conspicuously silent. This contrast is not accidental. It exposes a deeper logic of selective solidarity, one that determines which forms of gendered violence are…

Russia’s political backing of Iran and its opposition to military escalation have proved more consequential than military aid in shaping the conflict.The visit of Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, to Russia once again raises questions about Moscow’s position on the conflict between Iran on one side and the United States and Israel on the other.This visit should not come as a surprise. Russia is a great power and a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Iran and Russia are also friendly states, as stipulated in the 2025 treaty signed between them. Therefore, the most viable strategy is to promote…

Adapting to a changing world, Japan deepens cooperation on security, supply chains, and sustainable development between the two regions.The world is now in the middle of the most significant structural change since the end of the second world war. Amid shifts in the balance of power and the intensification of conflicts and confrontations, the free and open international order based on the rule of law faces serious challenges across the international community, including the Indo-Pacific. At the same time, the presence of the Global South is growing, and it is playing a larger role in international affairs.Ten years ago, Prime…