![Salim al-Jabouri (R), new speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, and Shi'ite deputy speaker Haider Abadi (L), a member of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law bloc, speak during a news conference in Baghdad, July 15, 2014. Iraqi politicians named Jabouri, a moderate Sunni Islamist, as speaker of parliament on Tuesday, a long-delayed first step towards a power-sharing government urgently needed to save the state from disintegration in the face of a Sunni uprising. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad (](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/08/RTR3YSIV.jpg/RTR3YSIV.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=xky6BEDC)
Clovis Maksoud is a former ambassador and permanent observer of the League of Arab States at the United Nations and its chief representative in the United States for more than 10 years.
![Salim al-Jabouri (R), new speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, and Shi'ite deputy speaker Haider Abadi (L), a member of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law bloc, speak during a news conference in Baghdad, July 15, 2014. Iraqi politicians named Jabouri, a moderate Sunni Islamist, as speaker of parliament on Tuesday, a long-delayed first step towards a power-sharing government urgently needed to save the state from disintegration in the face of a Sunni uprising. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad (](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/08/RTR3YSIV.jpg/RTR3YSIV.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=xky6BEDC)
![Men fire in the air as mourners carry the coffin of Lieutenant Colonel Nour Eddine al-Jamal, who was killed during Sunday's fighting between Lebanese army soldiers and Islamist militants in Arsal, during his funeral in Basta area in Beirut August 4, 2014. The Lebanese army advanced on Monday into a border town attacked by Islamists at the weekend in the most serious spillover of the three-year-old Syrian civil war into Lebanon. The military pounded areas around the town of Arsal with artillery for a third d](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/08/RTR41600.jpg/RTR41600.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=afiCmMPk)
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Clovis Maksoud
![Palestinians walk past graffiti depicting jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti on a section of the controversial Israeli barrier near the Qalandiya checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Ramallah May 25, 2011. Palestinians and Israelis alike saw little prospect of a fresh start to Middle East peace talks on Wednesday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's keynote speech to Congress. REUTERS/Baz Ratner (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR2MVS6](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/07/RTR2MVS6.jpg/RTR2MVS6.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=H2hvN0J9)
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Clovis Maksoud
![Israel's President Shimon Peres (C) and Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren (R) are bathed in blue light, save for the red focusing light of a camera, as they take their seats in the audience at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in Washington, March 4, 2012. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR2YUFE](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/07/RTR2YUFE.jpg/RTR2YUFE.jpg?h=e92c5d5c&itok=FfNH20lQ)
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Clovis Maksoud
![An Israeli Apache helicopter fires a missile towards the Gaza Strip July 22, 2014. Israel pounded targets across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, saying no ceasefire was near as top U.S. and United Nations diplomats pursued talks on halting the fighting that has claimed more than 600 lives. With the conflict entering its third week, the Palestinian death toll rose to 616, including nearly 100 children and many other civilians, Gaza health officials said. Israel's casualties also mounted, with the military announc](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/RTR3ZQ4S.jpg/RTR3ZQ4S.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=n5ZbACkF)
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Clovis Maksoud
![Palestinians stand next to a picture depicting late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as they inspect a house which police said was damaged in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City July 10, 2014. Israeli air strikes killed eight members of a family including five children in a pre-dawn raid on Gaza on Thursday, Palestinian officials said, while Hamas-led fighters launched rockets at Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR3X](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/07/RTR3XYGK.jpg/RTR3XYGK.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=skQFBRS6)
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Clovis Maksoud
![U.S. President Barack Obama gestures during his address to Israeli students at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem March 21, 2013. Obama appealed directly on Thursday to the Israeli people to put themselves in the shoes of stateless Palestinians and recognise that Jewish settlement activity in occupied territory hurts prospects for peace. REUTERS/Baz Ratner (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR3FA5I](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/07/RTR3FA5I.jpg/RTR3FA5I.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=Ym-_W6w9)
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Clovis Maksoud
![Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) listens as Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon gives a statement regarding the military operation to locate three missing Israeli teenagers, at a military base near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Beit Haggai, near Hebron June 19, 2014. Israeli forces traded gunfire with Palestinians on Thursday, the military said, in the fiercest street battles in the occupied West Bank since a search began for the three Israeli teenagers missing for a week. REUTERS/Jim Hollander](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/07/RTR3UOR1.jpg/RTR3UOR1.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=IhlAugf3)
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Clovis Maksoud
![A vendor sits near statues of Musaharati, or dawn awakeners, erected as part of decorations ahead of the holy fasting month of Ramadan at the port city of Sidon, southern Lebanon June 25, 2014. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho (LEBANON - Tags: RELIGION) - RTR3VQ1L](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/06/RTR3VQ1L.jpg/RTR3VQ1L.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=QXHoonT8)
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Clovis Maksoud
![The setting sun is seen behind a grove of trees at Cairo Stadium, January 2, 2014. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh (EGYPT - Tags: SOCIETY ENVIRONMENT) - RTX1703F](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/06/RTX1703F.jpg/RTX1703F.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=CEG5g0jv)
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Clovis Maksoud
![An election campaign poster of Iraq's former prime minister Ayad Allawi is pictured in Baghdad April 3, 2014. Iraq's parliamentary election is scheduled for later this month. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS) - RTR3JUUI](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/06/RTR3JUUI.jpg/RTR3JUUI.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=dQrVD-WY)
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Clovis Maksoud
![A Shiite volunteer, who has joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) who have taken over Mosul and other northern provinces, gestures from a truck in Baghdad, June 18, 2014. The United States is contemplating talks with its arch-enemy Iran to support the Iraqi government in its battle with Sunni Islamist insurgents who routed Baghdad's army and seized the north of the country in the past week. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad (I](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/06/RTR3UF7M.jpg/RTR3UF7M.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=ww3f_o8Z)
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Clovis Maksoud