Middle East

Middle East Monitor | – – Turkey and the US will oversee the withdrawal of forces allied to the YPG (People’s Protection Units) from the northern Syrian city of Manbij, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced today, according to Hurriyet Daily News. Speaking to reporters during a flight to Moscow, Cavusoglu said Turkey and the […]

Featured

How Trump is losing in Syria & why Haley is Posturing

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Well, I say Trump is losing, but it isn’t clear that Trump has a policy in Syria or cares whether he wins. The Department of Defense is losing. Its policy was to 1. defeat ISIL with the help of the leftist Kurds of the YPG (People’s […]

Haredim

1/3 of Israelis live in Poverty, especially Palestinians & Ultra-Orthodox

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – Israel has one of the highest poverty rates of any developed country with the gap between the rich and the poor ever widening, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) revealed yesterday. Single-parent families or families where only one parent works have a disproportionate rate of poverty, the […]

Kurds

Kurdish Civilians pledge to shield Afrin from Turkish Invasion with their Bodies

contributors

TeleSur | – – The YPG and allied forces, under the umbrella organization the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), control over 60 percent of the Syrian border with Turkey. The Kurdish residents of Afrin have said they would act as human shield to confront a Turkish assault on the local Kurdish militia YPG who rules the […]

Israel/ Palestine

Trump’s US Slams Schoolhouse Door on Palestinian Refugees

contributors

By Gordon Brown | (Project Syndicate) | – – The US has decided to withhold more than half of its planned funding for the UNRWA – $65 million of the $125 million earmarked for the agency. The move, which has been called a death sentence for the agency, will deal a devastating blow to efforts […]

Iran

Iranian women risk arrest: Daughters of the revolution

contributors

Homa Hoodfar | (The Conversation) | – – In the lead-up to March 8, I am sometimes asked whether we really still need an International Women’s Day (IWD). Though my greatest hope is to see a day when gender inequity and gender injustice are social artefacts of the past, that day feels nowhere near. I […]

Featured

Saudi Crown Prince Implicated: Credible reports of Torture and Murder in Ritz Carlton: NYT

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The late Saudi Maj. Gen. Ali al-Qahtani is said to have shown up at the morgue from the Riyadh Ritz Carlton where he had been imprisoned by Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, 32, with a broken neck, bruises and swelling all over his body, and […]

Featured

Iraq: Al-Sadr & Communist Party ally against Corruption, Iranian Hegemony

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Nativist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, 44, is encouraging members of his Sadr Movement to vote in the upcoming national elections for parliament. “Vote,” he said, “and save our country from corruption.” A newly formed political party, al-Istiqama or the Upright Party, will hew the Sadrist line. […]

Human Rights

Western Man jailed for “insulting” UAE online

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – A 39-year-old teacher* has been jailed and forced “to sign a fake confession” in the UAE following “an electronic insult” on social media. The teacher was arrested in October 2017 while working as a teacher in Abu Dhabi. His mother says he is being held in filthy conditions and […]