If the referendum on Egypt’s new constitution goes ahead as planned on 15 December and wins a majority, it will mark a political victory for President Mohamed Mursi...

The uproar caused by President Mohamed Mursi’s declaration of full powers on 22 November threatens Egypt’s efforts to mobilise funds from the International Monetary Fund and other donors...

Many of the post-revolution politicians are gaining a reputation for fiddling while parts of Tunisia burn. Riots in late November and early December in Siliana saw over 250...

Having departed from the overly ambitious roadmap set out in 2011’s Constitutional Declaration, Libya’s elected representatives cannot decide on a replacement and are mired in indecision. The consequence...

Last August, Egyptian billionaire Naguib Onsi Sawiris, 58, bought La Mancha Resources, owner of 40% of Sudan’s Ariab Mining Company. Naguib is a Coptic Christian and telecommunications captain...

Many Algerians feel that 50 years of independence have left them with little worth celebrating. Yet while dozens of protests about housing, job shortages and other grievances take...

Chinese companies are displacing European powers in African countries where ties were considered to be strongest, and China is set to become Algeria’s largest trading partner ahead...

President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz is navigating a delicate course across the region’s geopolitical minefield. Mauritania is not a member of the Economic Community of West African States...

Despite official promises of elections, President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz’s government has shown no serious signs of holding any. The opposition is not united and does not present...

The planned US$4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan for Egypt could be concluded within the next two month. And other foreign financing is on its way, say...

Liberal mistrust of Islamist leader Rachid Ghannouchi is mounting after his unguarded remarks about collaboration with hard-line Salafist groups were secretly videoed and distributed on the internet.

At the end of September, an Egyptian investment bank, the Beltone Financial, held a conference in Cairo for its international clients, heralding a ‘New Dawn’ for the Egyptian...

The handling of the killing by Malian troops of 16 Islamic preachers, nine of them Mauritanian, threatens the delicate balance between the interim regime and the army, say...

When President Mohamed Mursi retired the two most powerful military officers on 12 August, he strengthened the Muslim Brotherhood’s grip on power but the move also seems to...

One of the first challenges for Egypt’s new Prime Minister, Hisham Kandil, was to explain the collapse of large swathes of the electricity grid in early August. In...

Libya’s first fully democratic elections on 7 July won country-wide acceptance, even among groups which had been expected to boycott the vote. There were isolated protests and pockets...

President Mohamed Mursi’s challenge to the validity of a constituent assembly dictated by the military has been postponed amid brawling in court, on the street and in politics...

On 6 June, Algeria’s courts ruled that Chinese telecoms companies Huawei and ZTE are banned from participating in public tenders due to their inappropriate relationship with a former...

Too pragmatic for the Salafists, too conservative for secularists, Mohammed Mursi will walk a thin line after winning the presidency on 24 June.

On 31 May, Tunisia hosted the fifth China-Arab Cooperation Forum in Hammamet. For China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, it was the first such meeting since the Arab Spring...

Whatever the outcome of the presidential run-off between Ahmed Shafiq and Mohamed Mursi, the first-round results have much to say about how electoral politics have been evolving since...

Preparations for the first national elections in more than four decades, scheduled for 19 June, have placed the post-Gadaffi state under severe pressure. The opaque and unaccountable National...

The Chinese special economic zone in Algeria is yet another case where plans to replicate successful Asian policies met with unpredictable local conditions.

The Alliance d’Algérie verte (Green Alliance) of ‘moderate Islamist’ parties was severely disappointed by its poor showing in the 10 May elections. The parties had not been alone...

Political turmoil has followed the rejection of several candidates for the presidential election, including the Muslim Brotherhood’s Khairat el Shater and the Salafist hopeful, Hazem Salah Abu Ismail....

The state-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas) had plenty of reasons to end the gas export deal with Israel’s East Mediterranean Gas (EMG) and the Cairo government...

The economy is not growing fast enough to create the jobs needed, police continue to clash with protestors around the country and the Prime Minister’s coalition partners are...

The Muslim Brotherhood’s nomination of its deputy leader, Khairat el Shater, as presidential candidate on 5 April reflects the MB’s sharply deteriorating relations with the ruling generals. It...

Khairat el Shater: A successful businessman, El Shater spent twelve years in prison under President Hosni Mubarak. From his cell, he still took a leading role in the...

In September 2011, Colonel Moammar el Gadaffi’s son Es Saadi el Gadaffi arrived in Agadez in the dead of night in a mysterious convoy of vehicles, surrounded by...

Morocco is rolling out the welcome mat to Asian investors. Foreign Affairs Minister Saad-Eddine Al Othmani hosted its first Morocco-Asia Business Forum in Rabat on 15-16 March.

Several high-level diplomatic meetings initiated by Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane in recent weeks have raised hopes that Algeria and Morocco might finally reopen their border, closed since 1994.

There is growing talk that the moribund Union du Maghreb arabe will hold its first summit since 1994.

The Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Freedom and Justice Party, the largest in the new Parliament, is now on a neo-liberal economic course as it supports government proposals to borrow US$3.2...

In a victory for the long-frustrated ambitions of the Muslim Brotherhood, the People’s Assembly has elected Mohammed Saad al Katatni, a stalwart of the MB’s political wing, as...

Three months have passed since liberation was officially declared but no functioning government is in sight or even on the horizon. The oil sector is the only operational...

The lake in Benghazi city centre, beside which its two main hotels stand, epitomises Moammar el Gadaffi’s neglect of the east. Officially known as the ‘23 July lake’,...

Clashes between a military bereft of strategic vision and an ascendant Islamist majority in Parliament and on the streets will dominate politics this year. Minorities such as liberals,...

Religious and political arguments will dominate discussion in Cairo’s cafés this year, but more mundane matters of economic policy, interest rates and taxation levels may do more to...