Arab World

(By Michael G. Roskin) With a Congressional committee about to seize on the Benghazi question (as part of the 2014 election campaign), some previously unasked but basic questions should come before the committee: Who was the consul? Yes, the person—a State Department Foreign Service Officer—-in charge of a consulate. (A consul general is in charge […]

Drones

The True Costs of Remote Control Drone Wars

Juan Cole

(By Pratap Chatterjee via Tomdispatch) Enemies, innocent victims, and soldiers have always made up the three faces of war. With war growing more distant, with drones capable of performing on the battlefield while their “pilots” remain thousands of miles away, two of those faces have, however, faded into the background in recent years. Today, we […]

GCC

Saudi-Iran Struggle and the Syrian Proxy War can only be Resolved by Diplomacy

Juan Cole

(By Robert Mason) The current foreign policy tensions between Iran and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) pivot around Iran’s nuclear programme, ideology (the relative balance between revolutionary/resistance ideology and pragmatism), sectarianism, territorial disputes (such as over the islands of Abu Musa, Greater and Lesser Tunb) and alliances with state and non-state actors. […]

Israel/ Palestine

Human Rights NGOs Call for Palestine to take Israel to International Criminal Court

Juan Cole

(By Human Rights Watch) (Jerusalem) – Palestine should urgently seek access to the International Criminal Court (ICC), a group of 17 Palestinian and international human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, said today. In a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the groups said that providing the ICC with jurisdiction could give victims of war […]

Iraq

Iraq: Fundamentalist Shiite MP can only keep Power with Sunni Support

Juan Cole

(By Mustafa Habib in Baghdad via Niqash.org) The official results of Iraq’s general elections are unknown as yet. But current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will not be winning a majority – and his opponents are lining up to keep him out of power. Analysis suggests that al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim politician, will now try to […]

Featured

Top 10 Reasons GOP Benghazi Witch Hunt is just a Campaign Fundraising Ploy

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Since Obamacare is increasingly a wildly popular success, the GOP is flailing around looking for an issue, any issue to help fundraising for the fall congressional campaigns. In a vote that will live in infamy, the House GOP has decided to create a select committee to investigate the 2012 Benghazi consular attack […]

Arab Spring

Is Fall of Homs a turning point in Regime’s Quest to Retake Syria?

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The Governor of Homs Province, Talal al-Barazi said Wednesday that 80 percent of the rebel fighters in that city have now been evacuated. It is expected that the rest will leave on Thursday. Around a thousand fighters had been holed up in the old city of Homs and have now left, with […]

Egypt

In Egypt, Industrial Scale Death Decrees

Juan Cole

(By Amy Austin Holmes) A single judge in a single court in Egypt has sentenced more people to death this year than the total number of people who were executed last year in the rest of the world combined, with the exception of China. In 2013, at least 778 people were killed as a result […]

Climate Change

Egypt going Big Into Solar Energy, Announces $1 Billion Investment

Juan Cole

The new Egyptian government apparently sees solar energy as being a key part of the country’s future, based on recent comments made by its Local and Administrative Development Minister Adel Labib. At the recent inauguration of a conference organized…