Middle East

Middle East Monitor | – – Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his family are expected to visit Paris within 48 hours after he accepted an invitation from French President Emmanuel Macron. After speaking with both Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman and Hariri himself by telephone, Macron made the invitation yesterday hours after […]

Featured

Pres. Aoun: Saudi Holding Hariri an Act of Aggression

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Beirut newspaper Al-Nahar [The Day] reports that President Michel Aoun of Lebanon said Wednesday, “Nothing justifies Prime minister Saad Hariri’s failure to return to Beirut after the passage of 12 days from his announcement of his resignation.” Aoun said he considered Hariri to have been […]

Saudi Arabia

Saudis Bomb Yemen’s International Airport, Amid Devastating Blockade

contributors

TeleSur | – – A Houthi statement said that the attack “is an explicit violation of international covenants and treaties, which stipulate that civilian airports are not targeted.” The U.S. and U.K.-backed Saudi coalition carried out a bombing attack on the civilian airport in Yemen’s capital Sana’a on Tuesday, further cutting off crucial relief shipments […]

Featured

After Trump lets hundreds of ISIL Leave Raqqa, Turkey Enraged

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – On Tuesday, Turkey lambasted the US and its largely Kurdish allies in Syria, the YPG, for having made a deal that allowed 250 Daesh fighters and all their children and relatives to flee from Raqqa. Turkey’s prime minister Binali Yildirim said, “The YPG terrorists let Daesh […]

Hizbullah

Lebanon’s Big Crisis, and What Saudi Arabia could Lose

Juan Cole

By Billie Jeanne Brownlee and Maziyar Ghiabi | (The Conversation) | – – The Twitter account of Lebanon’s prime minister, Sa’ad Hariri has been inactive since November 6, just after he announced his resignation in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh. Hariri justified his decision as a move to escape an assassination plot. So far, both […]

Corruption

Former Trump NSC Adviser Flynn Accused of $15M deportation Deal with Turkey

contributors

TeleSur | – – According to reports by NBC News and Wall Street Journal, special prosecutor Robert Mueller is reviewing a meeting between Michael Flynn and Turkish officials. Reports have surfaced that Washington is investigating whether former White House national security advisor Michael Flynn had agreed to deport Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, from the United […]

Israel/ Palestine

Prince Charles baffled no US President will take on Israel Lobbies

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – Prince Charles has come under fire after it came to light that he blamed the “influx of foreign Jews” for causing unrest in the Middle East and called on the US to “take on the Jewish lobby” in a letter penned in 1986. Writing to his friend Laurens van […]

Lebanon

Saudi failures, from Qatar to Yemen, bode ill for its Success in Lebanon

contributors

By Beverly Milton-Edwards | ( OpenDemocracy.net ) | – – Domestic politics in the Middle East especially in a country like Saudi Arabia never stays that way for long. Recent events in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, demonstrate the contagion effect not only on the politics in the Middle East but internationally too. On November 3, […]

Featured

Nasrullah: Saudi has declared war on Lebanon

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Al Jazeera Arabic reports that Hassan Nasrullah, the secretary-general of Hizbullah accused Saudi Arabia of declaring war on Lebanon and on his party. He repeated his charge that Riyadh has abducted Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri and has forced him to announce his resignation in a […]