Arab World

By Roshni Majumdar | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – As US-backed Syrian rebels plow ahead in the fight to take back Raqqa from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria, the stake of civilian lives, who number as many as 100,000 in the city, has raised […]

Iraq

Freeing Fayza: A Journey to War-Torn Iraq to Rescue a Yazidi ISIL Slave Girl

Juan Cole

By: Brian Glyn Williams and Christopher Natola | (Informed Comment) | – – It began with an electrifying text message from a Yazidi member of a network dedicated to freeing Yazidis (an ancient people from Northern Iraq who adhere to a faith rooted in old Iranian religion and influenced by Sufi mysticism). The message was […]

Children

Demand-Side Slavery, Libyan Instability and European Crime Networks

Neil Thompson

Neil Thompson | (Informed Comment) | – – After several years in which refugees and migration have featured heavily in the Western media narrative, a disturbing correlation between human trafficking and conflict zones is well established. But new studies indicate that conflicts do not just cause human trafficking as refugees seek to flee warzones; wars […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syria: Russians alarmed, Washington Befuddled, by White House threats

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The unusual statement from the “White House” on Monday saying that there were indications that the Syrian regime was preparing to use poison gas has provoked much head-scratching both inside the Trump administration and around the world. Why would the “White House” say this? Is it […]

Corruption

How Saudi blackmailed the UN to avoid Yemen War Human Rights Slam

contributors

By Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – When Saudi Arabia – which has been spearheading a coalition of Arab states in a devastating war against Yemen since 2015 – was accused of bombing civilians, and particularly children caught up in the conflict, the government in Riyadh threatened to […]

Displaced and Refugees

If US Wars aren’t on TV, are all those 1000s really Dying?

contributors

Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – The headlines arrive in my inbox day after day: “U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria killed hundreds of civilians, U.N. panel says.” “Pentagon wants to declare more parts of world as temporary battlefields.” “The U.S. was supposed to leave Afghanistan by 2017. Now it might take decades.” There are […]

Chemical Weapons

Can Iran, Turkey and Egypt Cooperate to deliver Mideast from Chaos?

contributors

Farhang Jahanpour | ( Tehran Times | – – TEHRAN – Professor Farhang Jahanpour, part-time tutor on the Middle East in the Department of Continuing Education at the University of Oxford, tells the Tehran Times that Iran, Egypt and Turkey must set aside their differences in order save the the region from “chaos and destruction”. […]

Bashar al-Assad

Trump’s Escalations of War in Syria—Sleepwalking into a Global Confrontation

contributors

By Reese Erlich | (The Progressive) | – – Syrian President Bashar al Assad claims to have won the war and that he is merely mopping up remaining rebel groups. With its escalation of the undeclared war in Syria, the Trump Administration risks a direct military confrontation with Russia. On June 20, the United States […]

Bashar al-Assad

Trump accuses Syria of Planning Gas attack as Haley attacks Russia, Iran

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Trump administration is making noise about striking Syria, on the grounds that Damascus is planning to use poison gas again. Trump’s Neoconservative ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, tweeted: Any further attacks done to the people of Syria will be blamed on Assad, but […]