Country Risk Rating

Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party has refused the monitoring of November 28's parliamentary elections by foreign observers, calling it 'interference'. According to the party's... 2010-11-19

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Lebanon in mid-October on a two-day visit to meet President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.... 2010-11-19

Syria has improved ties with the US, Iran, and Saudi Arabia recently, increasing the likelihood that the country will have to compromise one of those relationships in the future. Syrian... 2010-10-21

Egypt's opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, announced on October 8 that it would contest the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in November, despite calls... 2010-10-21

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that he would not attend a climate change conference in Athens on October 22 if Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was attending.... 2010-10-21

A Lebanese prosecutor charged 84 people in early September with involvement in a deadly sectarian clash that killed three people in Beirut in August, in what was a further sign of the... 2010-09-23

Jordan and the United States are close to reaching a nuclear cooperation agreement (NCA), but there is some disagreement regarding Jordan's right, as a member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation... 2010-09-23

A stable currency and relatively high stock levels should help the world's largest wheat importer avoid significant food price inflation, the likes of which have caused political troubles... 2010-09-23

The proposed peace talks with the Palestinian Authority have been further complicated by an untimely arms deal between Russia and Syria. The Israeli government is concerned that Lebanon's... 2010-08-31

The marriage of convenience between the reformist March 14 and March 8 parties has worked surprisingly well, but things could come to a head now that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon... 2010-08-31