Iran

( Code Pink ) – In the topsy-turvy world of corporate media reporting on U.S. foreign policy, we have been led to believe that U.S. air strikes on Yemen, Iraq and Syria are legitimate and responsible efforts to contain the expanding war over Israel’s genocide in Gaza, while the actions of the Houthi government in […]

Hamas

How much Influence does Iran have over its Strategic Allies — Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis?

The Conversation

By Sara Harmouch, American University and Nakissa Jahanbani, United States Military Academy West Point | – From attacks by rebels in the Red Sea to raids in northern Israel and the Oct. 7, 2023, assault by Hamas, Western analysts have pointed a finger of blame toward Iran. Regardless of how involved Tehran is directly in […]

China

Iranian Economy Buoyed By ‘Dark Fleet’ Oil Shipments To China

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Michael Scollon | – ( RFE/RL ) – More than 6,000 kilometers from Tehran, in treacherous waters off the shores of Singapore, a “dark fleet” of oil tankers waits to offload the precious cargo that helps keep Iran’s economy afloat — a dependency that could also sink it. The fleet has grown steadily over […]

Apartheid

Israel now ranks among the world’s leading jailers of journalists. We don’t know why they’re behind bars

Peter Greste

By Peter Greste, Macquarie University | – (The Conversation) – Israel has emerged as one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, according to a newly released census compiled by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Each year, the committee releases a snapshot of the number of journalists behind bars as of December 1 […]

censorship

Iran: Chokehold on Dissent

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Iranian authorities show no signs of ending their brutal repression of peaceful dissent across the country one year after nationwide protests that erupted after the death in morality police custody of Mahsa Jina Amini in September 2022, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2024. The authorities […]

Democratic Party

Could Israel’s Gaza Atrocity Spiral into a Red Sea War and Sink Biden’s Reelection?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Joe Biden and his administration believe that they can support the extremist Israeli government in its genocidal assault on the innocent noncombatant Palestinians of Gaza without a political cost at home. They also believe that they can manage the conflict, so that it does not spiral into a wider Middle […]

Feminism

Iran’s “Women, Life, Freedom Movement” is still Resilient

Roodabeh Dehghani

Ottawa (Special to Informed Comment) – The term “social movements” typically evoke the idea of political activities in a sphere separate from culture, but social movements are closely related to values, ways of living, ethics, and more broadly culture. Among new social movement scholars, there is a growing recognition that social movements have more cultural […]

Iran

Muslims and Jews: Remembering Jewish School Days in Pre-Revolutionary Tehran

Nassrine Azimi

( The Chukogu Shimbun ) – HIROSHIMA —The elegant art deco building of Ettefagh, Iran’s famous Jewish school, still stands on a leafy avenue adjacent to Tehran University. Originally established by prominent Iraqis who had settled in Iran following Jewish pogroms and expulsions of the 1940s and early 50s in Iraq, Ettefagh started as a […]

al-Qaeda

Bin Laden’s Curse: Gaza, Iran and the Reemergence of ISIL

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The responsibility for the bombing in Kerman, Iran, on Wednesday that killed at least 84 people and wounded another 284, has been claimed by the ISIL (Daesh, ISIS) terrorist group. The worst terrorist bombing in Iran since the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) blew up the Iranian leadership in 1981 struck at […]