Middle East

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Turkish news service TRT reports from wire services that an Israeli air strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Khan Younis, where people had gathered to watch a soccer match, killed at least 29 persons on Wednesday evening. The weapon was an American-provided 250-pound bomb of the sort used […]

Iran

Iran’s new Reformist President offers Hope to the West and Cover for the Conservative Establishment

The Conversation

By Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, SOAS, University of London | – (The Conversation) – Good news for democracy in Iran – words which in recent times, particularly in western news reports, are rarely seen in the same sentence. But the election of Masoud Pezeshkian as president of Iran must be seen as a positive development. Pezeshkian is […]

Israel/ Palestine

How Israeli PM Netanyahu relies on normalizing Genocide

Ramona Wadi

( Middle East Monitor ) – The UN has been stating that nowhere is safe in Gaza. Palestinians have been crying out the same, prior to the useless official statements. Those that remain have been displaced several times over, in a macabre spectacle that leaves one wondering who is next in Israel’s genocidal kill toll. […]

Climate Crisis

Water Shortage: Was Iran’s late President Raisi a Martyr to Climate Change?

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Tarique Niazi | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died on May 19 while returning from a ceremony to inaugurate a hydropower project in a remote corner of northwestern Iran. Why would a head of state brave the hazardous conditions of unseasonal blizzards in a mountainous region to […]

Featured

Can Iran’s New Reformist President Deliver?

Fariba Amini

Newark, Delaware (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Elections in Iran have predictable outcomes. The men picked by the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, engage in a quasi-debate on TV, but usually the hand-picked guy is bound to win. This year saw a minor upset. The 2024 presidential election took place after the former President and […]

BDS

Do-it-Yourself Divestment: Bringing Anti-Gaza War Activism Home

Common Dreams

Yes, schools and other institutions should divest from companies involved in war crimes or fueling the climate crisis. But individuals can also divest. Here’s how. By Scott Plous ( Commondreams ) – On Sunday, May 26—as graduating students at my school, Wesleyan University, tossed their caps into the air—bombs rained down on a tent camp […]

Featured

Israeli Campaign against Gaza may Kill 186,000 or More — 8% of Population: The Lancet

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Rasha Khatib, Martin McKee and Salim Yusuf, The Lancet calculate that 186,000 or more people may be killed* by the Israeli total war on Gaza, about 8% of the population. If you do not see this study reported on your cable “news” channel, you may conclude that the corporation that […]

Bashar al-Assad

Turkey-Syria Normalization Bid stirs Violent unrest in both Countries

Volkan Isbasaran

Istanbul (Special to Informed Comment; Featured) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently said “there is no reason” not to pursue normalization of diplomatic ties with Syria, and he said that he does not rule out a possible meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Erdoğan added that Turkey had no intention of interfering in Syria’s […]

Israel/ Palestine

The New Desaparecidos: Israel and the Enforced Disappearance of Palestinians from Gaza

Middle East Monitor

By Inaam Adib Barkouk Israel has used all means to target Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, in addition to internationally prohibited weapons that wiped out people, trees and stones, Israeli forces have randomly arrested thousands of civilians including women and children, doctors, journalists from different areas of the Strip during the ground military operations […]