The Iraqi poet and recently appointed director of the Arab World Institute in Paris talks about stones, the overlap between diplomacy and literature, and what gives him 'the spirit of life'

Israel's quadcopter drones are fitted with loudspeakers and flown over camps after midnight playing the sounds of children screaming and women pleading. Those who go out to help are then shot

Cairo wants to regenerate its shipbuilding capabilities to boost its maritime fleet, but experts say this is a long-term plan requiring lots of investment. Can Egypt hope to compete?

The Syrian president knows that war between Israel and Hezbollah will send diplomats hurriedly calling Damascus. After more than a decade in the diplomatic naughty corner, this is his moment

Director Sara Suleiman has not flinched from showing a history suffering and exploitation, but the rare and dazzling quality of this documentary is its all-pervading sense of hope and optimism

The past ten months have upended policy trajectories relating to the Middle East. How the conflict unfolds in the coming weeks will have huge and unpredictable consequences for millions

War sent oil firms running while the loss of territorial control in the oil- and gas-rich north-east left the Kurds with the hydrocarbons and Damascus reliant on Iran. Will the good times roll again?

Not the arms control we have come to know from ratification signings, but a different, less formal, but perhaps no less effective form. Look closely, and you will see it is already happening

After 20 years, the UN Mission is being wound up and packed off, sacrificed for the political shimmying needed by Shia al-Sudani, as he dances between the US and those who want US troops out

Some say Al-Burhan's forces need a significant victory to let them negotiate with their heads held high, but with the paramilitary RSF gaining ground, that looks less likely. Where does this end?