Middle East

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump has tweeted as though he cares about the welfare of the Iranian protesters in small towns across that country who are upset about reduced government subsidies for commodities such as eggs and gasoline. His administration tried to prosecute protesters for laughing at VP Mike Pence. […]

Featured

Did the US cause Iran’s Economic Protests & will Trump Take Advantage?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The scattered urban protests that began in Mashhad on Thursday spread to several other provincial cities on Friday, including Qom, Rasht, Kerman and Qazvin. This is like protests in the US starting in Boston and spreading to Denver and Cleveland. Predictably, Trump had to get involved, […]

Copts

Egypt: Armed attack on Church south of Cairo leaves 10 Dead

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – Egyptian media sources have reported that the Mar Mina Church in Helwan, south of Cairo, was attacked this morning, resulting in the death of several people, including the attacker. The sources reported that an armed gunman tried to raid the church and an exchange of fire occurred between him […]

Iraq

Iraqi Kurdish Leaders’ No-Good very Bad Year

contributors

Histyar Qader | Erbil | (Niqash.org) | – – The end of the year brought strife to Iraqi Kurdistan, The northern region has to deal with a reduced area of influence, internal and external political problems, and a financial crisis. This year brought major transformation to the semi-autonomous northern region of Iraqi Kurdistan and by […]

Iran

Tehran Police say Iranian Women won’t be arrested over Dress Code

Juan Cole

Middle East Monitor | – – TEHRAN, IRAN – JUNE 5: Iranian women perform as they train Far East Fighting Arts to be able to defend themselves, at the Jughin castle which is located 40 km’s far from Tehran, Iran on Police in Iran’s capital said Thursday they will no longer detain women who violate […]

Displaced and Refugees

Saudi Arabia Killed 68 Yemeni Civilians in Just 1 Day: UN

contributors

TeleSur | – – A United Nations top official said warring sides in Yemen, especially the Saudi-led coalition, have no regard for human life. The top U.N. official in Yemen said Thursday that Saudi-led airstrikes have killed scores of civilians in the past 10 days, including 68 in just one day, in what he called […]

Bashar al-Assad

Russia: Permanent Bases planned in Syria to fight Terrorism

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (informed Comment) | – – The US military says that the number of ISIL fighters in eastern Syria has fallen from 3000 a month ago to only 1000 today. Moreover a lot of the latter are fleeing into al-Assad-controlled territory, a severe security concern for the Syrian state. The US is […]

Displaced and Refugees

Egyptian parliament moves to make atheism a crime

contributors

Brian Whitaker | ( al-Bab.com The Egyptian parliament’s committee on religion has announced plans to make disbelief in God a crime. Under the current law against “contempt of religions” atheists can be prosecuted for expressing their disbelief in public but the committee’s proposal would go further and criminalise disbelief itself. In 2014, little more than a […]