Middle East

Tehran (AFP) – Iranians are hunkering down for the return of US sanctions on Monday with a run on gold and hard currency as they scramble to protect their savings, and sporadic protests over the already troubled economy. State news agencies reported “scattered protests” of a few hundred people on Thursday in the cities of […]

Yemen

Yemen Slaughter: Saudi Airstrikes on Hospital, Fish Market Kill 55 Civilians – Red Cross

AFP

Sanaa (AFP) – A series of explosions Thursday on Yemen’s rebel-held port city of Hodeida killed 55 civilians and wounded dozens of others, the Red Cross said, denouncing the “reprehensible” disregard for human life. The attacks, which were also denounced by a senior UN official, come as the United Nations has said it will invite […]

Donald Trump

Turkish Party Proposes Seizing Trump Towers to Retaliate for US Sanctions

Juan Cole

The Turkish Press reports that the IYI Party is suggesting that the government seize the country’s Trump Towers and nationalize it. The threat shows the opposite of the emoluments problem– Trump is liable to economic blackmail because he refused to put his wealth in a blind trust. Turks are angered because the Trump administration placed […]

Iran

Things are So Bad in Iran that Afghan Migrants are Going Home

Frud Bezhan

Kabul (RFE/RL) – More than 400,000 undocumented Afghan migrants left Iran for Afghanistan so far in 2018, many of them in buses from Herat, near the Iranian border, to Kabul. Mohammad moved back to his native Kabul after living more than 10 years in Iran, where he washed cars and worked in construction to earn […]

Syria

Israel Sees Advantages in Assad Victory in Syria

AFP

Jerusalem (AFP) – Gains by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the Syrian civil war present advantages for Israel even though the two countries remain technically at war, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday. “In Syria, as far as we are concerned, the situation is returning to the previous one before the civil war, meaning there […]

Featured

Did Tillerson lose his Job over Stopping a Saudi Invasion of Qatar?

Juan Cole

Alex Emmons at The Intercept interviewed two former State Department officials and one intelligence official who confirmed to him that in early June, 2017, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had been on the cusp of invading Qatar, but were stopped by Rex Tillerson. Emmons suggests that Tillerson lost his job over his intervention, […]

Israel/ Palestine

Urgent: End Israeli Occupation of Palestine, Restore Iran Deal, and Denuclearize ME

contributors

Launched by professors at Princeton University and signed by experts on both sides of the Atlantic, this declaration calls for a break with the policy of unconditional support for the Likud government in Israel by US president Donald Trump, and an engagement with the region toward its denuclearization, including the signing by Israel of the […]

Iraq

Broke: US-Installed Iraqi Elite Spent or Stole all $700 bn in Oil Revenue since 2005

AFP

Baghdad (AFP) – Iraq has raised more than $700 billion from oil since 2005, but almost the entire amount has been spent, the central bank announced Tuesday. “Between 2005 and 2017, the finance ministry has taken in $706.23 billion dollars in foreign exchange” from oil, it said in a statement. “A total of $703.11 billion, […]

Featured

Israel’s Druze Minority Furious over Apartheid Law, Given their Military Service.

Juan Cole

Israel may never have been paradise for the some 20% of its citizens who are non-Jewish and Arabic-speaking. They did face de facto and sometimes even legal discrimination. But at least in the eyes of the law, they were full citizens. After the passage last week of the “nationality” law, Israel is no longer multicultural. […]