Arab World

By Scott Lucas, University College Dublin | – In north-east Syria, the 12-year conflict is far from over. Russian fighter jets buzz US surveillance drones, threatening to bring them down. Iranian-backed militias occasionally fire rockets at US positions. The Assad regime maintains that it will “regain every inch” of Syria, ending Kurdish autonomy in the […]

Brazil

Why did China attend MBS’s Ukraine Peace Conference in Saudi Arabia? Breaking with Moscow or Keeping Options Open?

Neil Thompson

London (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – China has come out in favour of a third round of talks to design a peace framework for the conflict in Ukraine following its attendance at an international forum in the Saudi city of Jeddah earlier this month. China’s attendance and active participation in the summit was seen […]

Featured

Trouble for Abraham Accords: Saudis Try to establish E. Jerusalem Consulate for Palestinians, but Extremist Israeli Gov’t says, “No!”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Quds Press reports that Saudi Arabia has given its ambassador to Jordan, Nayef al-Sudairi, an extra portfolio of consul in East Jerusalem. He presented his credentials to Majid al-Khalidi, an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Saudis did not coordinate this appointment with the Israelis, and it is the […]

History

How Lebanon was shaped by its Great Famine in WW I

Marc Martorell Junyent

Brand, Tylor. Famine Worlds: Life at the Edge of Suffering in Lebanon’s Great War. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2023. Review of Tylor Brand, Famine Worlds: Life at the Edge of Suffering in Lebanon’s Great War (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2023). Munich (Special to Informed Comment) – Suez, Gallipoli, Kut al-Amara, and Jerusalem saw […]

Climate Crisis

After Maui: Why Sultan al-Jaber both is and isn’t the Right chief for the COP28 Climate Summit

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sultan al-Jaber, the controversial chairman of the COP28 climate conference, is a United Arab Emirates businessman extraordinaire. His role and that of COP28 appear all the more important in the wake of the terrifying wildfires that swept the tropical island (!) of Maui this week and destroyed the ancient capital […]

Arab World

Russia’s Return as a Middle Eastern Power to Reckon With

Middle East Monitor

Amr Hamzawy ( Middle Eastern Monitor ) – The repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian war forced the administration of US President Joe Biden to back down from the policy of limited interest in the Middle East, and pulled the US back into a region that has changed dramatically in recent years. This region has […]

Displaced and Refugees

Headlines and Front Lines: How US News Coverage of Wars in Yemen and Ukraine reveals a Bias in Recording Civilian Harm

The Conversation

By Esther Brito Ruiz, American University School of International Service and Jeff Bachman, American University School of International Service | – (The Conversation) – War entails suffering. How and how often that suffering is reported on in the U.S., however, is not evenhanded. Take, for example, the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen in March 2015 and […]

Colonialism

The Tapestry of Palestinian History: The Palestine Museum in Bir Zeit

Middle East Monitor

Naima Morelli naimamorelli ( Middle East Monitor ) – Duty and care are the words that would best describe the approach of Dr Adila Laidi-Hanieh towards the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit. She is stepping down as director of the museum at the end of this month, and we took the opportunity for her to […]

Russia

Ukraine War: Talks in Saudi Arabia give Zelensky an Opportunity to Push his Plan to BRICs and the Global South

The Conversation

By Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham | – As the war in Ukraine escalated on and beyond the existing battlefields with intensified air, drone and ground operations, more than 40 countries met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, over the weekend of August 5-6 2023, to discuss peace. The talks in Jeddah were the latest effort to […]