Countdown to a truce?
Intensive diplomatic efforts might lead to a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. Khaled Amayreh reports from Palestine

Witnesses to war crimes
Greg Rollins, 30, an international peace activist with Christian Peacemakers Teams (CPT) was released from Ramleh Prison in Israel on 4 June where he was detained for 17 days without charges...

Statehood without land
In this second of a four-part series addressing the main points of the Mideast roadmap, Muna Hamzeh examines the lack of a clear Palestinian strategy to fight Israel's settlement policy

Settlement short takes
"The settlers refuse to face the fact that the pressing need to achieve a peace agreement stems from the ever-advancing demographic clock, whose hands are ticking forward with frightening speed to a time at which the State of Israel will lose the reason for its Zionist existence, or its democratic image."...

Left to their own devices
The protests in Iran, writes Amr Elchoubaki from Tehran, are not the state of revolt the US depicts them as being, but evidence of something else altogether

Back to the people
Hanan Ashrawi tells Dina Ezzat that for Palestinians to escape their current predicament the leadership and opposition should re-examine their priorities

Saudi clampdown intensifies
Those who had doubts that the House of Saud is determined to destroy the Al-Qa'eda cells in the country should finally be convinced, writes John R Bradley from Jeddah

The flood beyond the logjam
Former CIA official Graham Fuller speaks to Amira Howeidy about the forces Bush has unleashed in the region

'A spirit of cooperation'
"We want to bring the spirit of Davos to the Middle East," World Economic Forum (WEF) President Klaus Schwab told Reda Helal in an exclusive interview ahead of the upcoming extraordinary meeting of the WEF in Amman, Jordan

Women's fate
Rasha Saad , in Baghdad, looks at the challenges facing Iraqi women and speaks to an Iraqi activist, recently returned from self-imposed exile, about her vision for the future

Roadmap timeline
11 June: Following botched IOF assassination attempt of Hamas leader Abdul-Aziz Rantissi, Hamas suicide bomber kills himself and 17 Israelis in Jerusalem.

Archive
Venice Declaration on the Middle East

Briefs
Jordanians voted on Tuesday in parliamentary elections which King Abdullah II hopes will bolster his country's democratic credentials...