Major medical ethics conference is cancelled in the troubled kingdom

So will it be tragedy, farce or tourism? Obama’s a tourist, so says the Davy Crockett of the American journalistic frontier and philosopher king of The New York Times (aka T Friedman, Esq), but he’s wrong. The winner of the Nobel Prize for Public Speech-making will be at least a super-tourist – with 10,000 armed Israeli and American tour guides in Jerusalem alone. Now that, Mr President, is the wall. No, not That Wall, we’re talking about the Ottoman palisade on each side of the city’s Damascus Gate.

What does heritage matter in the face of such tragic desolation?

Long View: Against expectation, Lebanon’s anti-smoking campaign has been a success and one of the region's longest lasting habits is finally coming to an end

Why wouldn't the Saudi royal family arm their favourite anti-Shiite militia?

The maps long favoured in the West partition off Arab countries into ethnic divisions, but all these make clear is our own ignorance

Talks in Rome did nothing to hide the fact Syria's people have been betrayed

Last week, a senior commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was killed on his way out of Damascus. The key question is what he was doing there

But all the crusading and invading simply plays into al-Qa'ida's hands – just ask the French

"If you believe in free speech," said the email, "please cancel Robert Fisk's tour." Now, where have I seen these ruthless tactics before...