Middle East

By Madlen Davies and Ben Stockton This story was published in partnership with: The Guardian. Read the story. (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism) – Doctors in Gaza and the West Bank warn they are battling an epidemic of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, a growing problem in the world’s conflict zones and one that risks spilling over borders […]

Far Right

Israeli Crowds go to the Streets to Rally for and against Indicted PM Netanyahu

AFP

Tel Aviv (AFP) – Opponents and supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to the streets Saturday evening after the country’s attorney general said he intended to file graft charges against him. In central Tel Aviv, Netanyahu loyalists waved blue and white Israel flags and carried placards reading “Netanyahu, the people are with you” […]

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia to Put Detained Women Activists on Trial

AFP

Riyadh (AFP) – Saudi women activists detained last year in a sweeping crackdown on campaigners will be put on trial, state media said Friday. “The public prosecution would like to announce that it has concluded its investigation and prepared the indictment list against the defendants… and will refer the case to the relevant court,” the […]

Israel/ Palestine

Do Israel Pharmaceutical Firms Test Medicines on Palestinian Prisoners?

Middle East Monitor

Israeli Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian has charged that the Israeli occupation authorities issues permits to large pharmaceutical firms to carry out tests on Palestinian and Arab prisoners, Felesteen.ps reported. The Times of Israel also reported that in a recording from the event the Hebrew University lecturer also revealed that the Israeli military firms are testing weapons […]

Featured

Netanyahu to be Indicted on Bribery, Fraud, Press Tampering: Israeli AG

Juan Cole

Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has announced that he will indict Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on bribery and fraud charges. I think it should be underlined that two of the charges have to do with tampering with press coverage of the prime minister, which is to say, tampering with the Fourth Estate, one of […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel Broke Int’l Law, Likely Committed War Crimes, Shooting 6,000 Gaza Protesters: UN

Juan Cole

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A United Nations (UN) probe said, on Thursday, that Israeli security forces may have committed war crimes killing scores of Palestinians and wounding more than 6,100 suppressing weekly protests in the besieged Gaza Strip over the past year. Santiago Canton, Chairman of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry said, in a statement, […]

Iran

Iran’s Foreign Minister Zarif is Back, but Revolutionary Guards still Want Control

Golnaz Esfandiari

(RFE/RL) – A whirlwind eases with the Iranian president’s refusal to accept his smooth-talking foreign minister’s resignation. But that doesn’t necessarily mean Mohammad Javad Zarif has the political wind at his back. The political drama over the immediate fate of Iran’s foreign minister appears to be over. Mohammad Javad Zarif was back at work less […]

Iran

Iran’s Religious Leaders Keep Foreign Minister Zarif on to pursue European Diplomacy

AFP

Tehran (AFP) Iranian President Hassan Rouhani rejected Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s resignation on Wednesday, saying the departure of the public face of the Islamic republic’s detente with the West would be against its best interests. Zarif’s abrupt announcement on Instagram late on Monday that he was quitting had sparked rumours of mass resignations in […]

Featured

A Victim of Trump? Iran’s Centrist Foreign Minister Mysteriously Forced Out

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif resigned via Instagram on Monday, apologizing for his inability to continue in office and for any shortcomings in his past service to the nation. A member of parliament said that Zarif had submitted letters of resignation to President Hassan Rouhani on several occasions but […]