Manama - Princess Sabika bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the wife of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa said that “the Kingdom of Bahrain, despite its small surface area, has succeeded in drawing attention to it as a state that supports democratic work, based on the separation of powers, laying the foundations for the rule of law and the participation of the people in governance.” She also stressed the importance of the participation of Bahraini women in political life, and spoke about their early role in public affairs, which dates back to the era prior to the discovery of oil in the thirties.

The invasion of Iraq in 2003 raised many questions. And as it is known, there almost always is a multitude of causes leading up to wars, and rarely are wars caused by only one reason. The 2003 war is hence no different from other conflicts in this regard.

Whatever the results of the Iraqi parliament’s discussions today over the issue of those excluded from running in the next legislative elections, and whatever the final formula for resolving this matter, the issue of the Baath Party and what it symbolizes, in the past and in the present, will remain a source of anxiety for the situation in Iraq.

I continue from where I left off yesterday. I do not know whether Barack Obama will achieve any successes in his second year, after his first year came devoid of any memorable achievements. There are enormous difficulties facing Obama, both domestically and abroad. If he should succeed, he would have conjured up a miracle of biblical proportions, but he is to fail, then I will hold the previous administration responsible, since the latter left him with an impossibly burdensome legacy.

As if our region needed any more madness from the likes of Avigdor Lieberman, who was imported by Israel from his job as a bouncer in Moldavia to lead its “diplomatic” corps with such unmatched skilfulness. In less than a month, this man, who heads the Israeli Foreign Ministry, has angered two states in the country’s vicinity. One is Turkey, which has preserved strong ties with Israel since its establishment, despite the constant criticisms by Turkey’s neighbors.

Barack Obama failed to achieve many of the promises he gave to the American people during his first year in the White House. However, he is still pledging to continue trying, and he is saying that he has learned from his mistakes. Hence, we will wait and see whether his second year will end with real achievements for the Americans in what regards domestic affairs, as well as in terms of the U.S foreign policy.

The negotiations in New York over the Western Sahara next week will not be like those that preceded them, yet they may not be different from the latter in terms of maintaining an atmosphere of caution, in light of the absence of a mutual will to go far towards a permanent solution that would be acceptable to all parties.

Israel is worried since it never enjoyed periods of calm over the past two decades, as it did in 2009. This concern is growing since “Syria and Hezbollah and Hamas are piling up arms and missiles,” while Iran continues to deceive the West, and the United States in particular, with tactical maneuvers that conceal its efforts to complete its nuclear program, in addition to its dream to wipe off Israel.

I believe that the purpose of studying economics at university is not to produce experts who can reform either the local or global economic system, or to analyze the upward and downward trends in the economy; rather, its purpose is to provide job opportunities for teachers and graduates.

The experience of intellectual and ideopolitical reexaminations that have begun to take place in the way some extremist Islamists in Mauritania deal with the state and with society will neither be the first nor the last. Indeed, they were preceded by experiences in Egypt, Algeria and Libya, which were little more than milestones that failed to curtail the growth of the phenomenon.