[8] Hiwar frequently published works by prominent Arab authors, including a serialization of Tayeb Salih's classic novella Season of Migration to the North in 1966.

"[9] Hiwar, like other magazines funded by the Congress for Cultural Freedom, republished interviews originally appearing in The Paris Review, whose co-founder Peter Matthiessen was a CIA operative as well as a novelist.

[10] According to Issa J. Boullata, Hiwar raised suspicions in the Arab world about its provenance, due to the "generous payments to its contributing writers and its relatively low price despite excellent production and slick appearance."

In light of these rumors, Egyptian novelist Yusuf Idris declined to accept a prize that Hiwar had awarded him in November 1965, in the amount of 10,000 Lebanese lira.

[11] Hiwar drew skepticism even before it launched; Sayigh recounted that Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani attacked the planned magazine because of its foreign funding.