Middle East

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The New Yorker reports that there was a further Steele memo, prepared by the same ex-MI6 intelligence officer who authored the notorious “golden shower” dossier, which reported Russian foreign ministry boasts that they had blocked Trump from appointing Mitt Romney as secretary of state. Romney had […]

Featured

Netanyahu & Trump, both under Investigation, Meet on phony ‘Deal of the Century’

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Far right Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu will meet Monday with far right white nationalist president Donald J. Trump in an apparent effort to hurry up Trump’s announcement of the “Deal of the Century” between Israel and the Palestinians. The Arabic press is speculating that Netanyahu, […]

Bashar al-Assad

Yes, Newsweek & RT, Syria’s Regime uses Chemical Weapons

contributors

By Brian Whitaker | ( al-Bab.com) | – – False claims in the UN security council: Syria’s Bashar Ja’afari At a meeting [last month] of the UN security council Syria claimed the US and France now doubt that the Assad regime has ever used chemical weapons. The claim was false but it provides an interesting […]

Corruption

Did an Emirates-Israel alliance Help elect Trump more than Russia?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – One of the surprises thrown up by the Gulf crisis and by the Mueller investigation is how entangled the United Arab Emirates is with Israel, and how the lobbies of the two states in Washington powerfully shape American policy. While the Israel lobbies have received scholarly […]

Iran

Iran: Women Protesters against Veiling face Regime Prostitution Charges

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari | ( RFE/RL) The hijab became compulsory in Iran after the 1979 revolution. A small number of Iranian women, risking arrest to protest compulsory head scarves, have rekindled debate about Iran’s so-called hijab rule. The Islamic scarf, or hijab, is one of the pillars of the Islamic republic and among its most […]

Featured

UN: War Crimes being Committed in Syria’s East Ghouta

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Reuters reports that Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned Syrian (and Russian?) officials that there is credible evidence that they are committing war crimes in East Ghouta, and perhaps crimes against humanity. A war crime is a single action that violates […]

Saudi Arabia

Is the Saudi Elite Cannibalizing itself?

contributors

By Hugh Miles | (Middle East Monitor) | – – The weekend of 4-5 November 2017 was an eventful one in Saudi Arabia; a missile from Yemen exploded at Riyadh Airport and the Deputy Governor of Asir died in a helicopter crash. Important incidents, no doubt, but not enough on their own to keep that […]

Foreign Policy

Iran bans Dollar for import Trade in anti-Sanctions Campaign

contributors

TeleSur | – – Mehdi Kasraeipour, the Central Bank of Iran’s director of foreign exchange rules and policies, said the move is unlikely to meet with resistance. Iran has banned the use of the U.S. dollar in all trade transactions, prohibiting businesses from registering import orders using the currency. The Ministry of Industries, Mining and […]

Iran

Are Iran and Saudi Arabia competing for the soul of Iraq?

Juan Cole

By Saleem al-Wazzan | (Niqash.org) | – – Iraqis can now visit a special visa-free zone in neighbouring Iran, over the border from Basra. Some locals see the open border as a cynical economic and political move that helps Iran, but not Iraq. 22.02.2018 | Basra Politics Postcards from Abadan, Iran, in the new visa […]