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Juan Cole

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Why Trump can't put Iran back in an Obama-style box of severe sanctions

Why Trump can’t put Iran back in an Obama-style box of severe sanctions

Juan Cole

Iranian oil exports were back up to 2.5 million barrels a day or so last month, similar to the levels common before the US placed severe sanctions on the country beginning in 2012. At the low point Iran, which produces around 4 million barrels a day, was only exporting 1.5 million barrels a day, forced […]

Donald Trump
If Giuliani’s right Trump lied about Porn Star Hush Money, why believe him on Iran?

If Giuliani’s right Trump lied about Porn Star Hush Money, why believe him on Iran?

Juan Cole

Rudy Giuliani’s so-called defense of Donald J. Trump on Sean Hannity’s nightly One Hour of Hate involved outing the president’s money laundering deal with Michael Cohen whereby he paid him a regular retainer for undisclosed services and then expected him to spend from his own bank account on fixer jobs for Trump. This arrangement helps […]

Donald Trump
Top 4 things more disgraceful than Michelle Wolf's Jokes or leak of Mueller Questions

Top 4 things more disgraceful than Michelle Wolf’s Jokes or leak of Mueller Questions

Juan Cole

This week, the Right wing outrage machine, in part orchestrated by Trump, has been groaning about comedian Michelle Wolf’s roast at the White House Correspondents’ dinner and now Trump is calling the leak of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s questions for him “disgraceful” (typos suggest Trump may have leaked them himself. Here are some things that […]

Featured
Netanyahu: Don’t look here where we’re shooting children, look over there at Iran

Netanyahu: Don’t look here where we’re shooting children, look over there at Iran

Juan Cole

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a notorious warmonger, serial liar and supremacist racialist who used to lead the closest thing Israel has to a fascist party until parties even more extreme got elected to parliament, is attempting to bamboozle the clueless Trump into getting on a war footing with Iran. Netanyahu’s breathless announcement that there […]

Featured
Why is Pompeo Suddenly against Saudi Arabia’s War on Yemen?

Why is Pompeo Suddenly against Saudi Arabia’s War on Yemen?

Juan Cole

According to a State Department leak to the New York Times, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, when he was in Riyadh on Saturday, pressured the Saudi government to wind up the war in Yemen. If this report is true, it is puzzling. In contrast, Secretary of Defense James Mattis has urged President Trump to stay […]

Featured
Pompeo to Saudi Arabia:  Mobilize against Iran and end Yemen War, Qatar Blockade

Pompeo to Saudi Arabia: Mobilize against Iran and end Yemen War, Qatar Blockade

Juan Cole

Newly minted secretary of state Mike Pompeo held consultations Saturday in Riyadh with Saudi officials, according to ABC. Pompeo’s program, like the foreign policy of Trump in general, was full of unlikely projects and ideologically driven impracticalities. An obsession with Iran drove most of these unlikely plans. Pompeo pressured the Saudi government to stop boycotting […]

Featured
Pompeo, Trump's new Enforcer, Talks tough against Russia, Iran

Pompeo, Trump’s new Enforcer, Talks tough against Russia, Iran

Juan Cole

Immediately on being narrowly confirmed as Secretary of State by the Senate, former CIA director Mike Pompeo flew off to Brussels. Pompeo appears to have had three main messages for NATO. The first is that Germany and other members have to pay a bigger share of its costs, a constant refrain of his boss, President […]

Featured
If the Leaders of the two Koreas can meet, why can't those of Saudi Arabia and Iran?

If the Leaders of the two Koreas can meet, why can’t those of Saudi Arabia and Iran?

Juan Cole

The remarkable face to face meeting of the leaders of North and South Korea is being watched with hope by many observers, given the long decades of enmity between the two and the recent nuclear sabre-rattling of President Trump. At least in my circles, I see virtually no one condemning the meeting, though many are […]

China
Russia and China slam Trump-Macron Push to Renegotiate Iran Deal

Russia and China slam Trump-Macron Push to Renegotiate Iran Deal

Juan Cole

Russia and China are both putting their feet down about the talk in the US and France about renegotiating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 agreement on freezing and curtailing Iran’s nuclear enrichment program by the UN Security Council and Germany in return for lifting international sanctions. US President Trump is threatening […]

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