Middle East

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Iran nuclear deal was horse trading. Iran gave up 80 percent of its civilian nuclear enrichment program and was supposed to get in return the lifting of all sanctions. Instead, Trump maximized sanctions, in what is essentially a trade and financial blockade on the country. So it is like […]

Children

Saudi Arabia must stop Executing Children: Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch

By Bill Van Esveld | – ( Human Rights Watch) – On August 26, the Saudi Human Rights Commission announced the judiciary would review three death sentences in accordance with a recent decree to halt capital punishment for child offenders. Ali al-Nimr, Dawoud al-Marhoun, and Abdullah al-Zaher were sentenced to death for allegedly committing crimes […]

Epidemics

Palestinians in Gaza Face Covid-19 Alone and Isolated, in Israel’s Open-Air Prison

Middle East Monitor

By Eman Abusidu | – ( Middle East Monitor) – Since Covid-19 first appeared, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have tackled the pandemic with typical determination. Without delay, they implemented a strict quarantine regime with mandatory 21-day isolation in government-run facilities adjacent to the border posts. This seems to have worked well until last […]

Arab World

Coronavirus in the Middle East: a testing time for relations between regimes and their citizens

Brian Whitaker

( Al-Bab.com ) – THE CORONAVIRUS pandemic is not only testing the ability of governments to manage an unusual kind of crisis – it is also testing their relationship with the people they govern. Success in confronting the virus depends on governments and citizens working together, but among the authoritarian regimes of the Middle East […]

Israel/ Palestine

Why the Israel-UAE Deal Isn’t About Peace at All

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Phyllis Bennis | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – In some ways, the U.S.-brokered plan for mutual recognition between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is big news. For more than a quarter of a century, only two Middle Eastern countries — Egypt and Jordan — had officially recognized Israel. None of the […]

Israel/ Palestine

Gaza was Already Israel’s Open Air Prison, Bombed and Blockaded, and now Covid-19 and Lockdown

Middle East Monitor

By Mohammed Rafik: ( Middle East Monitor ) – Life has shut down in the Gaza Strip with an unexpected number of coronavirus infections within a single-family outside the quarantine zones. A number of deaths have also been reported and a full curfew was announced on Monday. In the middle of all of this, Israel […]

Donald Trump

Iraqi Shiite Militias 1, Trump 0: US Forced to Reduce its Presence by 1/3

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iraqis aren’t sure what to make of the report on Friday in the Wall Street Journal that the US military will reduce its troop presence by a third by November. The numbers will fall from 5200 to 3500 this fall. Athir Shar’ in Kitabat suspects that even the withdrawal aims […]

Israel/ Palestine

‘Dying to fish’: How Israeli piracy destroyed Gaza’s once thriving fishing Industry, a Key Source of Protein

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor) – On August 16, the Israeli navy declared the Gaza sea a closed military zone. A few days later, a group of Gaza fishermen decided to take their chances by fishing within a mere two or three nautical miles off the Gaza shore. No sooner had they cast their nets, Israeli […]

India

Pakistan’s ‘Brotherly’ Ties With Saudi Arabia Hit ‘Rock Bottom’

Frud Bezhan

By Frud Bezhan | – ( RFE/RL) – But the long-standing economic, political, and military ties between the South Asian state and the oil-rich Middle East kingdom have been based less on common values and more on transactions, experts say. Riyadh has provided huge financial support in the form of cheap oil and loans to […]