Middle East

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The recent round of talks in Vienna between Iran and Germany plus the 4 members of the UN Security Council who are still members of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA) have not gone well, though further meetings are planned. One reason is that […]

censorship

Yemeni journalist accused of spreading atheism is jailed for 15 years in Saudi Arabia

Brian Whitaker

( Al-Bab.com) – A Yemeni journalist has become the latest victim of Saudi Arabia’s laws against religious disbelief. Thirty-year-old Ali Muhsin Abu Lahoum worked in Sana’a for the Yemen Times before moving to Saudi Arabia in 2015 and taking up a job with a TV station. More recently he is said to have been working […]

Corporate Surveillance

We’re all Palestinians Now: Israel-backed NSO Spyware used against US State Department

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Reuters reports that at least nine US State Department officials had their smartphones hacked by Pegasus spyware, produced by the Israeli-government-backed NSO company. The officials were informed of the hacking of their iPhones by Apple, which is suing NSO, essentially for tortious interference. The State Department personnel were all either […]

Displaced and Refugees

Urgent UN Action needed on Yemen Atrocities to end “Pandemic of Impunity”

Human Rights Watch

Human rights Watch – (New York) – The United Nations General Assembly should act swiftly to establish an investigative mechanism to gather and preserve evidence of serious human rights abuses and violations of the laws of war in Yemen, a coalition of more than 60 organizations said. Failure to act would not only be a […]

Israel/ Palestine

Even Israel’s Labor Party President signals that the Occupation of Palestinians in Permanent

Middle East Monitor

By Ashraf Al-Ajrami | – ( Middle East Monitor) – Israeli President Isaac Herzog chose to celebrate the Jewish Hanukkah holiday — the “Festival of Lights” — at the Ibrahimi Mosque in occupied Hebron, accompanied by a group of settler leaders. “The historical affinity of the Jewish people to Hebron, to the Cave of the […]

Featured

As Iran Negotiates on Nuclear Deal, Americans Wrongly believe it has a Bomb — and that Israel Doesn’t!

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – This week Iran returned to Vienna for negotiations with Germany and the four members of the UN Security Council still adhering to the 2015 nuclear deal or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPOA). Chief negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani brought two documents, one on the lifting of sanctions on Iran and the […]

Afghanistan

After America: The Russo-Turkish Tango in Afghanistan

Nikola Mikovic

The Kremlin is making overtures to the new Taliban government in Afghanistan. On October 21, at a meeting of the Valdai Club, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is close to removing the Taliban from the list of terrorists, which could be interpreted as part of the Kremlin’s hot and cold game with the Taliban. […]

Israel/ Palestine

No, Opposing Israeli Apartheid Policies is not anti-Semitism, and Most Universities are rejecting IHRA Propaganda Ploy

Middle East Monitor

On the first of October, the University of Bristol fired Professor David Miller, a world renowned expert on the Israel lobby, the Zionist movement and Islamophobia. They did not give an explicit reason for the sacking, claiming only that Miller “did not meet the standards of behaviour we expect from our staff.” But it is […]

Featured

Both UN Official and US Amb. to UN Warn Israel Squatter Violence toward Palestinians is Escalating

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Tuesday, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, delivered alarming remarks to the United Nations Security Council about the dangers of an outbreak of further violence on the part of the Israeli state and its squatter-settlers toward the 5 million Palestinians they keep stateless […]