Arab World

By Daniel Martin Varisco | (MENA Tidningen) | – – The fighting that erupted in Aden over the weekend is still going on, but army forces loyal to exiled president Hadi appear to be on the losing side. Al-Jazeera is reporting that the Southern Transition Council (STC) forces “were able to wrest control of a […]

Foreign Policy

US general defies Turkey, says not planning Manbij troop withdrawal

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – The United States has no plans to withdraw troops stationed near the town of Manbij in northern Syria despite warnings from Turkey to remove its forces immediately, CNN quoted the US Central Command chief General Joseph Votel as saying. Pulling US forces from Manbij is “not something we are […]

Kurds

Ankara warns US spec ops to Abandon Kurds or risk Turkish Attacks

contributors

TeleSur | – – Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag also stated that “those who support the terrorist organisation will become a target in this battle.” Turkey’s government has urged the United States to rein in its support for pro-Kurdish fighters, otherwise, they risk engaging with Turkish troops on the battlefront in Syria. The statement, […]

Afghanistan

US Pentagon will Keep fighting in Syria until they win the Vietnam War

contributors

By Danny Sjursen | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Vietnam: it’s always there. Looming in the past, informing American futures. A 50-year-old war, once labeled the longest in our history, is still alive and well and still being refought by one group of Americans: the military high command. And almost half a century later, they’re […]

Saudi Arabia

Camel Contestants in Saudi Pageant busted for Botox

contributors

By Daniel Martin Varisco | MENA Tidningen | – – The camel, once referred to as the “ship of the desert” for the Arabian Peninsula, is one of the most enduring icons of Arabia. As Richard Bulliet argued almost half a century ago, the camel became the beast of burden and linguistic invention in Arabia […]

Featured

In blow to Trump, Syrian Kurds call on al-Assad to Save them from Turkey

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The hopes of the Trump administration to use the Syrian Kurds as a wedge against the government of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus may be rapidly fading. The liberal Lebanese newspaper Elbalad [The Country] reports that the Autonomous Administration of the Kurdish-majority Afrin region of northern Syria, […]

Donald Trump

Countering Turkish Propaganda, Pentagon reports 150 ISIL Killed in Airstrikes

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The front page news today that US and coalition aircraft (mostly American joined by French and British pilots) struck last Saturday at an ISIL base in eastern Syria where hundreds of fighters had regrouped, killing 150 of them. There are lots of question marks about this […]

Arab World

Jordan’s King Abdullah warns Pence-Trump of Major instability over Jerusalem

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Political scientist John Mearsheimer wrote a book on the tragedy of great power politics. While that subject is indeed shockingly depressing, imagine the tragedy of small power politics. Poor King Abdullah II of Jordan was forced to host Trump’s vice president Mike Pence, the world’s biggest […]

Pentagon

Top Trump officials, in Syria’s Raqqa, vow “Stabilization” w/out “Reconstruction”

Juan Cole

Middle East Monitor | – – The US government’s aid chief, Mark Green, made an unannounced visit to Raqqa in Syria on Monday, the most senior US civilian official from the Trump administration to visit the war-struck northern city months after it was retaken from Daesh, Reuters reports. Green was accompanied by head of the […]