GCC

Human Rights Watch | – (Beirut) – The Houthi armed group in Yemen has intensified its recruitment, training, and deployment of children in violation of international law. Since September 2014, when the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, took control of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, they have increasingly used children as scouts, guards, runners, and fighters, […]

Barack Obama

Saudi Arabia as the Incredible Hulk: King Salman snubs Obama’s Gulf Summit

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Watching Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia nowadays, is like Kremlin-watching in the old days of the Cold War. It is not as if most Western journalists have a really good idea of the maneuverings inside the Saudi palace or know why exactly things happen. Since King Salman […]

Central Intelligence Agency

US Increases Intelligence-Sharing With Saudi Arabia Over Yemen Strikes

contributors

By Nadia Prupis, staff writer | (Commondreams.org) – U.S. ups ‘sensitive’ intelligence-sharing with Saudis to help them get ‘better sense of the battlefield,’ while aid groups describe disaster on the ground in Yemen As the humanitarian crisis in Yemen worsens, the U.S. is stepping up its role in supporting Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign against the […]

GCC

Saudi-led attacks in Yemen demonstrate the Gulf’s new assertiveness

contributors

By James M. Dorsey | ( Your Middle East ) – “Everything is underground, nothing is public.” The current Saudi-led intervention in Yemen designed to prevent Iranian-backed forces from gaining power symbolises the Gulf’s new assertiveness. This is unfolding as the various Gulf states seek to hedge their bets with different strategies that complement rather […]

GCC

Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen is Morphing into Major War

contributors

By Paul Rogers Since it was first announced, the Saudi Arabia-led war in Yemen has developed very rapidly. Air strikes have already hit numerous targets, resulting in many civilian deaths. Clearly, the Saudis are not prepared to watch Yemen’s long-running domestic turmoil become a full-blown collapse. Ever since a rebellion led by the Shia Houthi […]

Featured

Lebanon’s Shiite Hizbullah slams Saudi attack on Yemen

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Hasan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hizbullah, Lebanese Shiite party-militia, weighed in on Friday on the Saudi intervention in Yemen. The Saudis put together a Sunni coalition against the Shiite Houthis and have bombed Zaidi Shiite population centers like Sa’adeh. I discussed their motives in my just-published piece in […]

GCC

Would a US-Iran Deal end US Military Interventions in ME?

contributors

RT | – “Nuclear talks have resumed in Switzerland with the US and Iran struggling to clinch a crucial deal ahead of the March deadline. The western nations want Iran to halt its nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions. Former State Department official and Middle East expert Professor Hillary Mann Leverett joins RT to […]

Energy

Top 5 Ways Lower oil Prices Could Change the World

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Brent Crude has fallen to $90 a barrel as China’s and Asia’s slowing economic growth has reduced oil demand and production remains high. All this despite the subtraction of Libyan and Syrian oil from the market and the big reduction, via sanctions, in Iran’s exports. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are pumping more […]

GCC

What Arab partners will get in return for strikes on Syria

contributors

By Lars Berger The decision by President Obama to launch missile and air strikes against Islamic State (IS) and the al-Qaeda affiliate “Khorasan” in Syria draws the United States ever closer to yet another prolonged military confrontation in the region. But there’s a difference this time: the participation of a coalition of Arab states, variously […]