Presidential elections will take place in France in less than six months, and it is difficult to predict who will come out on top. The Socialist MP, Francois Hollande, is his party’s candidate, and continues to enjoy a lead over President Nicholas Sarkozy, according to the latest opinion poll. Sarkozy has yet to formally announce his candidacy, but according to everyone close to him, he will be the candidate of the UMP, which has a majority in the French Parliament.

The annual conference of the Union of Arab Banks in Beirut was supposed to honor the Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr, with the attendance of the Secretary General of the Arab League Dr. Nabil el-Arabi. However, they were both absent because the conference last week coincided with the meeting of the Arab ministerial committee in Cairo following up the Syrian crisis, which is more important.

The Arab League sanctions on the Syrian government have shifted the momentum in the protestor’s favor and should, according to a senior US official, hasten the collapse of the Assad regime. Trends of militarization in the uprising and a growing sectarian divide, however, are increasingly threatening the chances of an inclusive and democratic transition in Syria.

Ninety years ago, the Ottomans left our region, as a result of the political and military collapse of the Sultanate, and amid great joy by the Arab nationalists at the time, over their victory against “Turkification”. The latter’s slogans in fact reflected hostility against everything Arab, be it their ethnicity, language or culture.

I write on Monday morning amid a high turnout for the first stage of the elections in Egypt, and a perhaps unexpected sense of calm surrounding the polling centers, so hopefully these elections, in all three stages of them, will end as they started.

Some have asked the question: why did the Revolution in Tunisia succeed, while the Egyptian Revolution continues to fail?

The young man said in a triumphant tone, “look at America leaving Iraq humiliated. It has paid a steep price for the adventure of occupation. Today, the U.S. dares not request permanent or temporary bases. Its sole ambition is to complete its withdrawal quickly. The sacrifices of the resistance fighters did not go in vain. Young men with limited capabilities have faced the mightiest force on earth”.

Dr. Mohieddine Amimour is an Algerian friend and partner in the conferences, seminars and lectures. He is a doctor and a former minister of communication and culture who later on assumed the post of director of the Foreign Relations and International Cooperation Committee at the Algerian Council of the Nation.

Last week, Pearl GTL was officially inaugurated in Qatar. It is a joint project between Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Shell for the production of petroleum derivatives from natural gas. This cutting-edge industry represents an important and fundamental shift in the oil industry, since derivatives like diesel, jet fuel, naphtha, ethane, etc., were earlier produced by refining crude oil. Now, it is possible to obtain these derivatives from natural gas as well, at better specifications compared to derivatives produced from refined crudes, owing to the fact that they are nearly free of sulfur.

In its relationship with the new rulers in Spain, Morocco needs an extra dose of patience and perseverance. While the neighboring sphere is not always a source of concern, it is not always a source of comfort either, especially in the context of relationships in which history intersects with the residues of the past, and the differences that cast their shadows on both the present and the future.