Week in Review - AL-MONITOR: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Week in Review

Does Iran benefit from Gaza crisis?

Week in Review

Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah gestures as he makes a rare public appearance to addresses his supporters during a rally to mark "Quds (Jerusalem) Day" in Beirut's southern suburbs July 25, 2014. REUTERS/Sharif Karim (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST ANNIVERSARY) - RTR404VX

Nasrallah promises 'all means of support' for Gaza 'resistance'

Week in Review

Smoke trails are seen as rockets are launched towards Israel from the northern Gaza Strip July 13, 2014. Thousands fled their homes in a Gaza town on Sunday after Israel warned them to leave ahead of threatened attacks on rocket-launching sites, on the sixth day of an offensive that Palestinian officials said has killed at least 160 people. Militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip kept up rockets salvoes deep into the Jewish state and the worst bout of Israel-Palestinian bloodshed in two years showed no sign

Iran boosts Hamas rocket capacity

Week in Review

Israel considers costs of escalation in Gaza

Week in Review

Palestinian women watch from a rooftop as the body of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair is carried during his funeral in Shuafat, an Arab suburb of Jerusalem July 4, 2014. Palestinians infuriated at the kidnap and killing of Abu Khudair they blame on far-right Jews, clashed with Israeli police in Jerusalem on Friday, while cross-border shelling in the Gaza Strip abated under Egyptian mediation. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST OBITUARY) - RTR3X41S

Will Palestinian unity fall victim to crisis over murders?

Week in Review

Members of the Iraqi security forces fire artillery during the clashes with the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the town of Dalli Abbas in Diyala province, June 28, 2014. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most influential Shi'ite cleric in Iraq, called on the country's leaders on Friday to choose a prime minister within the next four days, a dramatic political intervention that could hasten the end of Nuri al-Maliki's eight year rule. Picture take

The Syria disconnect in US Iraq policy

Week in Review

Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) celebrate on vehicles taken from Iraqi security forces, at a street in city of Mosul, June 12, 2014. Since Tuesday, black clad ISIL fighters have seized Iraq's second biggest city Mosul and Tikrit, home town of former dictator Saddam Hussein, as well as other towns and cities north of Baghdad. They continued their lightning advance on Thursday, moving into towns just an hour's drive from the capital. Picture taken June 12, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer (I

Mosul's rude awakening on ISIS

Week in Review

Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) stand guard at a checkpoint in the northern Iraq city of Mosul, June 11, 2014. Since Tuesday, black clad ISIL fighters have seized Iraq's second biggest city Mosul and Tikrit, home town of former dictator Saddam Hussein, as well as other towns and cities north of Baghdad. They continued their lightning advance on Thursday, moving into towns just an hour's drive from the capital. Picture taken June 11, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNRE

Turkey should close its border to ISIS

Week in Review

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) meets Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in Rome, March 6, 2014.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (ITALY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3G4K4

Liberman: Arabs 'must come out of the closet'

Week in Review

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan during an unannounced visit to Bagram Air Base in Kabul, May 25, 2014. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY) - RTR3QSY3o

Obama ramps up on Syria

Week in Review

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton (L) and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wait for the start of talks in Vienna May 14, 2014. Six world powers and Iran launch the decisive phase of diplomacy over Tehran's nuclear work during three-day talks starting in Vienna on Wednesday, with the aim of resolving their decade-old dispute by July 20 despite skepticism a deal is possible. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger (AUSTRIA - Tags: POLITICS ENERGY) - RTR3P1Z8

Iran nuclear talks hit snag over sanctions

Week in Review

Destroyed buildings are pictured, after the cessation of fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, in Homs city, May 10, 2014. Picture taken May 10, 2014. REUTERS/Ghassan Najjar (SYRIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTR3ON0N

US should test Iran on Syria

Week in Review