While the Palestinian leadership is still committed to seeking UN recognition of a Palestinian state in September, Mahmoud Abbas says he is open to other "constructive proposals", writes Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah

To his consternation, Netanyahu is finding no allies among former senior security officials for his plans to attack Iran over its nuclear programme, writes Saleh Al-Naami

As the Gaza Freedom Flotilla II prepares to set sail for Gaza, Israel continues to assault the vessels of third-party nations at sea with impunity, writes Stuart Littlewood from London

NATO is the toast of Libya's National Transitional Council even as Gaddafi's gaffes and guilt do not fade in his foes' books, cautions Gamal Nkrumah

As a national conference on reform opened in the Syrian capital this week, it may be that the gulf between the regime and the opposition is still too wide for a solution to the crisis to be found, writes Bassel Oudat in Damascus

Hundreds of illegal Tunisian immigrants to Europe have returned home, many of them putting an end to a sad adventure, writes Mourad Teyeb in Tunis

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was reported to be planning a visit to Syria last week as Ankara's relationship with Damascus moved towards breaking point, writes Gareth Jenkins

Al-Bashir didn't drop into a black hole during his trans-Eurasian odyssey. Instead, he affirmed Iran and China are unmistakable sources of stability to a Sudan in throes of change, expounds Gamal Nkrumah

A camp for exiled Iranians in Iraq is turning from being a pawn in a political chess game into a timebomb in an already violence-battered country, writes Salah Nasrawi