Iran

No, Obama couldn’t have settled the Syrian civil war and prevented Iranian breakout

The “Iran deal”: when American and Iranian arch-conservatives are on the same side

By Kourosh Ziabari | (OpenDemocracy.net) The domestic critics of the Iran deal and its Republican misanthropists in the United States are making a similar mistake. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran Deal, is a UN-endorsed agreement that caps Iran’s nuclear activities, subjects them to the full safeguards of the International […]

European Union

Europe’s big Plans for Iran Trade announce Independence from Trump’s Washington

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Despite the significant economic problems Iran faces, and despite the real problems in unequal income distribution, Iran’s economy is seeing bright spots that the Western press rarely admits. In the year after international sanctions were lifted on the signing of the nuclear accord, spring 2016-spring 2017, […]

Iran

In Irony, Ahmedinezhad calls for Free Elections in Iran

contributors

Middle East Monitor |- – Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose 2009 re-election prompted mass unrest over alleged vote rigging, has called for “free” presidential and parliamentary elections in an open letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Reuters reports. Khamenei backed Ahmadinejad after his return to power kicked off protests in which dozens of […]

Featured

Russia warns Israel on Syria strikes, danger to Russian Troops

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – BBC Monitoring reports on a statement in Russian at the site of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reacting to the Israeli air attacks on Syria and the shoot-down by the Syrians of one Israeli fighter-jet. The Foreign ministry expressed “serious concern” over the Israeli air strikes, […]

Featured

Russia-aided Syria shoots down Israeli F-16 after downing of Iranian Drone

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Syrian anti-aircraft batteries scored a rare shoot-down of an Israeli F-16 late Saturday morning local time. It is being alleged by a whole range of analysts that this shoot-down could not have happened without Russian help. It required that the anti-aircraft personnel break Israeli radar jamming. […]

Feminism

Why Iranians are Really protesting Compulsory Veiling Laws

contributors

By Moujan Mirdamadi | (The Conversation) | – – Protests against Iran’s mandatory hijab law – which requires all women to wear it in public – have sprung up across Iran in the first few weeks of 2018. Women, acting individually, stood on utility boxes in public places, taking off their headscarves and holding them […]

Colonialism

British Empire’s hidden workings in India and Iran revealed in remarkable new film footage

contributors

By Jonathan Westaway | The Conversation | – – In a basement office at the Royal Geographical Society in London’s South Kensington, grainy 16mm film footage flickers silently across the screen, one of over a hundred expeditionary and travel films digitised recently by the society and the British Film Institute. They are now free to […]

Feminism

The ‘Girls of Revolution Street’ Protest Iran’s Compulsory Hijab Laws

contributors

By Mahsa Alimardani | ( GlobalVoices.org ) | – – A spate of defiant Iranian women have taken to the streets of Tehran to protest against compulsory veiling. Photos of their demonstrations have been widely circulated online under the hashtag #دختران_خیابان_انقلاب (translated to #Girls_of_Enghelab_Street). As of the afternoon of January 29, at least two women […]