Middle East

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – 2018 was in many ways a turning point for the position of Israel in the system of Western, liberal, capitalist democracies. It had long sat uneasily among France, Britain, and the United States, inasmuch as it was founded on a formal racial supremacist principle that Jews must rule the state. […]

Assyrians

Middle East Christians, with the population of Sweden, Celebrate Christmas

Juan Cole

I do a column like this one from time to time, fighting back against the ‘veil of tears’ approach to the study of Middle Eastern Christians. Some have argued that Christianity is declining in the Middle East, and this allegation is certainly true in some ways and in some places. If Egyptian Christians declined from […]

Syria

Abandoned by Trump, Syrian-Kurdish YPG Closes in on Last ISIL Bastions

AFP

Beirut, Lebanon | AFP | – Smoke billows after bombings near Hajin, in eastern Syria, on December 15, 2018 Kurdish-led forces made fresh gains against jihadists defending their eastern Syria stronghold Monday, forcing hundreds of people to flee the fighting, a war monitor said. The Syrian Democratic Forces, with aerial support from the US-led coalition, […]

Christianity

Arab Christmas Music Concert: Majida el Roumi (MTV Lebanon)

contributors

MTV | (Music Video) – MTV Lebanon: Majida el Roumi Christmas Concert

Syria

Top 6 Players in Syria affected by US Departure

AFP

Beirut, Lebanon | AFP | – US President Donald Trump’s decision last week to pull troops out of Syria could have far-reaching repercussions for the multitude of parties involved in the conflict. Turkey After a call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump appeared to be passing on responsibility for the fight against the […]

Syria

France’s Macron slams Trump as Unreliable Ally over Syria Withdrawal

AFP

N’Djamena, Chad | AFP | – French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday criticised US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American forces from Syria, saying “an ally must be reliable”. In a sign of the growing diplomatic rift between the two leaders, Macron said “I deeply regret the decision” by Trump to pull out US […]

Displaced and Refugees

Trump Deporting undocumented Iraqis at risk of Arrest, Torture in Iraq

Human Rights Watch

(Beirut) – The United States government has deported at least 30 of a planned 1,400 people originally from Iraq back to their country, in some cases threatening long imprisonment if they don’t consent, Human Rights Watch said today. In all cases that Human Rights Watch is aware of, the deportees lack valid identity documents, putting […]

Afghanistan

What Trump Ousting of SecDef Mattis Means for Russia, Syria & Afghanistan

The Conversation

By Scott Lucas | – The last adult in the Trump White House playground has gone – and the president is throwing his toys around. James Mattis, as defence secretary, was one of three retired generals in the Trump administration whose hope was to contain an ill-informed, temperamental, and unpredictable president. Now they’re all gone: […]

Featured

With Trump leaving, Syrian Kurds seeking Support of Damascus, Moscow against Turkey

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Secretary of Defense James Mattis resigned on Thursday in part because he felt his president was violating the code of the Marines, that no man should be left behind. In abruptly pulling out of Syria, Trump was abandoning the Syrian Kurds, the only allies the US could find in the […]