By Farhang Jahanpour | (Inter Press Service) | – – OXFORD (IPS) – Although the implementation of Iranian nuclear deal has been welcomed by all those who had been involved in the negotiations as part of the P5+1, the deal has had many vociferous opponents. In the United States, the opposition to the Iranian deal […]
Archives for February 2016
Donald Trump attacks Pope Francis as puppet of Mexico on Immigrants’ Rights
TeleSur | – – Trump accused Pope Francis of being an instrument of the Mexican government because of his pro-immigration stance. The Vatican responded. U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump is no stranger to slinging insults and criticism, but he might have been punching out of his league when he picked a fight with the […]
PA: Israel concealed prisoner’s hunger strike for 43 days
Ma’an News Agency | – – JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Authority Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs on Tuesday accused Israel of concealing a 43-day long hunger strike being undertaken by a Palestinian prisoner. Hanan al-Khatib, a lawyer with the committee, said the Israeli authorities had attempted to keep prisoner Muhammad al-Mahr out of the public […]
The Chinese are Coming: First ‘New Silk Road’ Train reaches Iran’s Capital
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In a sign of China’s increasingly powerful role in Central Asia and the Middle East, on Tuesday a Chinese train arrived in Tehran after a 14-day journey. The freight train just used existing rail links to go from China to Kazakhstan, then to Uzbekistan, then Turkmenistan, […]
Do Drug Profits actually drive Terrorism in the Muslim World?
Robert Rotberg | (The Conversation) | – – Terrorists are in it as much for the loot as for the ideology. . . . ISIS, could hardly exist, whatever its Islamist fervor, without hard cash from sales of pilfered petroleum, taxes on its subject population and kidnappings for ransom. Likewise ISIS- and al-Qaida-linked groups in […]
Turkey: Erdogan’s Domestic War for a Presidential System
By Rosa Burç and Burak Çopur | TeleSur | – – The current war against the Kurds and oppositional voices is being waged to push an autocratic presidential system. The surprising electoral success of the pro-Kurdish HDP in last year’s June 7 elections denied the ruling AKP a majority for the first time since 2002 […]
Why Americans are Angry: The Minimum Wage Trap
By Peter Van Buren | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – When presidential candidate Bernie Sanders talks about income inequality, and when other candidates speak about the minimum wage and food stamps, what are they really talking about? Whether they know it or not, it’s something like this. My Working Life Then A few years ago, […]
Syria: Instead of a Cease-Fire, have Great Powers unleashed new Proxy Wars?
By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Service) | – – MADRID (IPS) – – When 25 million Syrians–half of them refugees abroad or at home and the other half terrorised by daily bombing, learnt that major world leaders in their meeting in Germany launched an unprecedented confrontation threatening with unleashing World War III, instead of […]
George W. Bush, who Mirrored & Inflamed Public passions, attacks Trump for It
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – George W. Bush came out of political exile on Monday to be his brother JEB!’s surrogate in attacking Donald Trump. W. allowed as how “These are tough times and I understand Americans are angry and frustrated, but we do not need someone in the Oval Office […]