Arab World

(Human Rights Watch) – The Houthi armed group and other authorities are severely restricting the delivery of desperately needed aid in Yemen, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The situation is exacerbating the country’s dire humanitarian situation and weakening its response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Human Rights Watch: “Aid Restriction in Yemen […]

censorship

Top 4 reasons Trump’s Saving “ass” of Bin Salman over Khashoggi Murder is Shameful and just Wrong

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sonam Sheth and John Haltiwanger at Business Insider have seen Bob Woodward’s Rage, which will be published next Tuesday. They quoted some passages from the interview with Trump in which he boasted about having saved the “ass” of Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman in Washington D.C. by discouraging the […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

Did the US War on Terror Displace 37 Million?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Brown University Watson Institute Costs of War Project has put out a report concluding that the US-led “War on Terror” has displaced 37 million people. While there are parts of the report I agree with, some of the argument seems to me flawed. Let me explain why that is, […]

Featured

Russia defies US Sanctions, presses Syria on Long Term Trade, Investment deal for Energy

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Russia and Syria are preparing to enter into a wide-ranging trade and investment deal, according to RT Arabic. Sunday night, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov arrived in Damascus to meet with high Syrian officials. On Monday, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov arrived, meeting with Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad and his […]

Donald Trump

As Washington retreats, Eastern Mediterranean conflict further marginalizes NATO

Ramzy Baroud

Middle East Monitor – The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance in name alone. Recent events notwithstanding, the brewing conflict over territorial waters in the Eastern Mediterranean indicates that the military union between mostly Western countries is faltering. The current Turkish-Greek tension is only one facet of a much larger conflict involving, aside […]

Human Rights

Why is Saudi Arabia Holding its Prominent Political Prisoners Incommunicado?

Human Rights Watch

Safety Concerns for Activists, Ex-Crown Prince, Clerichu

Children

Saudi Arabia must stop Executing Children: Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch

By Bill Van Esveld | – ( Human Rights Watch) – On August 26, the Saudi Human Rights Commission announced the judiciary would review three death sentences in accordance with a recent decree to halt capital punishment for child offenders. Ali al-Nimr, Dawoud al-Marhoun, and Abdullah al-Zaher were sentenced to death for allegedly committing crimes […]

Arab World

Coronavirus in the Middle East: a testing time for relations between regimes and their citizens

Brian Whitaker

( Al-Bab.com ) – THE CORONAVIRUS pandemic is not only testing the ability of governments to manage an unusual kind of crisis – it is also testing their relationship with the people they govern. Success in confronting the virus depends on governments and citizens working together, but among the authoritarian regimes of the Middle East […]

Israel/ Palestine

Why the Israel-UAE Deal Isn’t About Peace at All

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Phyllis Bennis | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – In some ways, the U.S.-brokered plan for mutual recognition between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is big news. For more than a quarter of a century, only two Middle Eastern countries — Egypt and Jordan — had officially recognized Israel. None of the […]