Middle East

Yemen: Authorities Failing to Protect People’s Basic Rights: Dire Conditions, Bureaucratic Barriers to Aid

( Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Yemeni authorities are failing to meet their international legal obligations to protect socio-economic rights for millions of Yemenis, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing a submission to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. After more than seven years of protracted conflict, the Yemeni […]

Saudi Arabia

Mike Pompeo, seeking White House, runs interference for the Saudis, Trashing murdered Journalist Khashoggi

Michael G. Roskin

Nashville – (Special to Informed Comment) – Mike Pompeo asserts that murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Kashoggi was no mild critic of the Saudi regime but a dangerous radical trying to subvert it. This, I suspect, has been the Saudi line fed to Washington since Kashoggi’s 2018 dismemberment at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Trump […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli Calls for Palestinian Hamlet Khan Al-Ahmar’s Demolition speak of Colonial Violence and Privilege

Ramona Wadi

( Middle East Monitor ) – The former Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, has told a Likud faction meeting that “illegal Palestinian construction” in the occupied West Bank is “rampant”. He wasn’t being honest. “Last Friday we made it clear that supporting settlements does not contradict upholding the law,” he claimed. “The defence […]

Corruption

In Unusual Search for Accountability, Lebanese PM charged with Homicide over 2020 Beirut Port Explosion

The Conversation

By John Nagle, Queen’s University Belfast | – The investigation into the Beirut port explosion has taken a new turn, with the judge overseeing the probe charging a former prime minister and two other former ministers with homicide with probable intent. The explosion in August 2020, which happened in a massive silo in the port […]

Far Right

Having brought in Disruptive Israeli Extremists, Can Netanyahu’s Government Survive?

Middle East Monitor

By Motasem A Dalloul | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Before it was formed, the new far-right Israeli government coalition has been plagued with disputes and disagreements, despite the fact that all of its members are from the right-wing parties and all of them, at least, share the same principles, although each Party […]

Featured

Turkey’s President Erdogan Says Swedish NATO Application out of Question after Qur’an burning in Stockholm

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Sweden can forget about membership in the 30-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Erdogan is demanding that Sweden cooperate with Turkey in repressing Kurdish activist expatriates in Sweden, all of whom he views as terrorists. He also says he is furious about the […]

censorship

Iran Charges 16, Including Several Teens, For Protests Amid Reports Of Forced Confessions

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Ardeshir Tayebi | – ( RFE/RL ) – Iran has charged 16 people, including several teenagers, in the northwestern Iranian city of Urmia for planning demonstrations and accusing them of espionage amid reports those detained gave confessions after being beaten. In November, 25 people were arrested for allegedly having connections with “spy organizations” and […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel’s New West Bank Entry Rules Further Isolate Occupied Palestinians (HRW)

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Jerusalem) – New Israeli guidelines on access to the West Bank for foreigners threaten to further isolate Palestinians from loved ones and global civil society, Human Rights Watch said today. The guidelines, which came into force in October 2022 and were amended in December 2022, set out detailed procedures for West […]

Far Right

Israel’s Netanyahu Crumbles before Supreme Court demand he Fire Corrupt Minister, as AG considers Banning Netanyahu Too

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) Carrie Keller-Lynn at The Times of Israel reports that at Sunday’s Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was forced to fire his minister of health and the Interior, Aryeh Makhlouf Deri, who heads up the ultra-right-wing Shas Party. The move was forced on Netanyahu by Israel’s Supreme Court, which holds Deri […]