Middle East

Settler attacks against the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank tripled in 2018, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Sunday. Israeli settlers carried out at least 482 attacks against Palestinians last year, up from only 140 in 2017, the daily said. The settler attacks ranged from “beating up and throwing stones at Palestinians, painting nationalist and […]

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Men can no Longer Divorce Wives without Telling Them

TeleSur

Saudi courts now have to inform wives by text message that their husbands want a divorce in a bid to end surprise separations on the part of their husbands. Starting Sunday, courts in Saudi Arabia are required to notify wives by text on any rulings confirming their divorces. However, women still remain subject to male […]

Iran

What is Behind Iran’s Anti-Corruption Protest Drive?

Mina Yousefi

By Mina Yousefi | – (International Center for Non-Violent Conflict ) – For a little over a year, Iran has witnessed a new wave of civil resistance, which had been brewing in various towns and cities around the country since the 2009 Green Revolution. Corruption and economic hardship—-although not entirely new problems—-are the two main […]

Kurds

How will Trump’s Withdrawal from Syria Affect the Turkish-Kurdish Conflict?

The Conversation

By Dilan Okcuoglu | – Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria is likely to help ISIS adopt a new strategy and expand its territorial control while at the same time continuing its execution of unarmed civilians. The move also means Trump has stabbed in the back his most successful military partner, […]

Featured

Trump’s Remark that Iranians ‘Can do what they want’ in Syria Mocked in Mideast

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Christian-owned Lebanese daily al-Nahar (The Day) mocked Trump’s remark this week that Iran can do whatever it wants in Syria after the US military withdrawal (“they can do what they want there, frankly”). A columnist for the newspaper, Monalisa Fariha, entitled her piece, “Iran will get out of Syria […]

Syria

The US Should Leave Syria, but Must Protect its Kurds from Turkey

Stephen Zunes

By Stephen Zunes | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Donald Trump’s sudden decision to remove U.S. forces from Syria appears to have been impetuous and ill-considered — apparently a result of a conversation with Turkey’s autocratic president Recep Erdoğan. That doesn’t mean, however, that the United States should remain in that country. It’s […]

Syria

Al-Qaeda-Linked Guerrillas make Gains in Northwest Syria

Middle East Monitor

Clashes among rival Syrian rebel factions have spread across northwest Syria, rebels and residents said on Thursday, in the latest bout of tit-for-tat fighting between opponents of President Bashar al Assad’s rule, Reuters reports. Infighting has long plagued Syria’s armed opposition since the uprising against Assad began in 2011. Turf wars have helped the Syrian […]

Afghanistan

Trump Spews Incomprehensible Nonsense on Kurds, Syria, Afghanistan

Juan Cole

“A Commentary on the words that spewed from Trump’s mouth at his news conference during a cabinet meeting on January 2, 2019,” or, “A Ph.D. who has been teaching at a public Ivy since 1984 is forced to spend his time chasing the rabid ferrets running around in the head of a decrepit reality t.v. […]

Bahrain

Bahrain Upholds 5-Year Sentence on Critic of Yemen War, Human Rights Violations

Human Rights Watch

(Human Rights Watch) (Beirut) – The Bahrain Court of Cassation, the country’s court of last resort, on December 31, 2018 upheld a five-year sentence for Nabeel Rajab, a prominent human rights defender, Human Rights Watch said today. The sentence arose from comments criticizing torture in a Bahrain prison and the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. […]