Middle East

Kabul (RFE/RL) – More than 400,000 undocumented Afghan migrants left Iran for Afghanistan so far in 2018, many of them in buses from Herat, near the Iranian border, to Kabul. Mohammad moved back to his native Kabul after living more than 10 years in Iran, where he washed cars and worked in construction to earn […]

Syria

Israel Sees Advantages in Assad Victory in Syria

AFP

Jerusalem (AFP) – Gains by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the Syrian civil war present advantages for Israel even though the two countries remain technically at war, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday. “In Syria, as far as we are concerned, the situation is returning to the previous one before the civil war, meaning there […]

Featured

Did Tillerson lose his Job over Stopping a Saudi Invasion of Qatar?

Juan Cole

Alex Emmons at The Intercept interviewed two former State Department officials and one intelligence official who confirmed to him that in early June, 2017, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had been on the cusp of invading Qatar, but were stopped by Rex Tillerson. Emmons suggests that Tillerson lost his job over his intervention, […]

Israel/ Palestine

Urgent: End Israeli Occupation of Palestine, Restore Iran Deal, and Denuclearize ME

contributors

Launched by professors at Princeton University and signed by experts on both sides of the Atlantic, this declaration calls for a break with the policy of unconditional support for the Likud government in Israel by US president Donald Trump, and an engagement with the region toward its denuclearization, including the signing by Israel of the […]

Iraq

Broke: US-Installed Iraqi Elite Spent or Stole all $700 bn in Oil Revenue since 2005

AFP

Baghdad (AFP) – Iraq has raised more than $700 billion from oil since 2005, but almost the entire amount has been spent, the central bank announced Tuesday. “Between 2005 and 2017, the finance ministry has taken in $706.23 billion dollars in foreign exchange” from oil, it said in a statement. “A total of $703.11 billion, […]

Featured

Israel’s Druze Minority Furious over Apartheid Law, Given their Military Service.

Juan Cole

Israel may never have been paradise for the some 20% of its citizens who are non-Jewish and Arabic-speaking. They did face de facto and sometimes even legal discrimination. But at least in the eyes of the law, they were full citizens. After the passage last week of the “nationality” law, Israel is no longer multicultural. […]

Israel/ Palestine

Saudi King overrules Crown Prince, Rejects Trump’s Sell-Out of Palestinians

Middle East Monitor

The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, revealed a letter sent by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz to the White House in which Saudi Arabia expressed its rejection of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan. Haaretz said in a report that: “Saudi Arabia has informed US President Donald Trump’s administration that it will not be able to support […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli Judge gives Palestinian Poet 5 Months in Prison for her Resistance Verse

Maan News Agency

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Israeli Magistrate Court of Nazareth sentenced Palestinian poet Darin Tatour, from the al-Reineh village in northern Israel, to five months of prison and 6 months of suspended sentence on Tuesday. The Israeli prosecution accuses Tatour of “incitement and supporting a terrorist organization” for writing a poem criticizing the Israeli occupation and […]

Donald Trump

Trump Passive-Aggressive Offer to Meet Iranians Rebuffed b/c he is “Unreliable”

Juan Cole

At a news conference Monday with the prime minister of Italy, Trump blurted out that he was willing to meet with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani any time and without preconditions. “No preconditions. No. They want to meet, I’ll meet. Anytime they want. Anytime they want. It’s good for the country, good for them, good for […]