Middle East

Washington (AFP) – The top commander overseeing US military involvement in Syria said Thursday he’d received no new instructions to work with Russians since President Donald Trump met with his Russian counterpart in Finland. “No new guidance for me as a result of the Helsinki discussions as of yet,” General Joe Votel, who heads US […]

Donald Trump

US War on the Weak: Trump in Mideast helps Crush Palestinians, Yemenis

Rebecca Gordon

San Francisco (Tomdispatch.com) – My father and I always had a tacit agreement: “We will never speak of That Part of the World.” He’d grown up in an Orthodox Jewish family in Norfolk, Virginia. His own father, a refugee from early-twentieth-century pogroms in what is now Ukraine, had been the president of his local Zionist […]

Israel/ Palestine

11 Years of Blockade: How Despair Has Made Gaza Unlivable

TeleSur

By Valerie Carmel | – (TeleSur) In 2012 the United Nations published a report claiming the Gaza Strip would be unliveable by the year 2020. Five years later, after the summer 2014 full-on Israeli military assault against the Palestinian terrirtory, the U.N. published another report arguing Gaza had reached the point of un-liveability citing deteriorating […]

Iraq

Protest Wave: ‘Explosion of Rage at System that has Robbed Iraqis of’ Hope

Ali Choukeir

Baghdad (AFP) – In the heat of battle against the Islamic State group, Iraqis united against a common enemy. But just a few months after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over the jihadists, social grievances that once simmered on the back burner have boiled over in a series of protests that have spread to […]

Donald Trump

What exactly did Trump Promise Putin on Syria, START Nuclear Treaty?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – There was a difference of opinion in the Russian press about whether the Putin-Trump Helsinki summit was contentless or whether new agreements were reached, especially on strategy and Syria. BBC Monitoring of the Russian press reports an editorial in the Vedomosti business daily on the Helsinki summit, which says that […]

Israel/ Palestine

US Episcopalians Will Boycott Israeli Firms involved in West Bank Rights Abuses

Middle East Monitor

The US Episcopal Church has announced it has adopted a series of human rights resolutions which will set a screening mechanism for Israeli companies. According to the resolution, the companies will be screened for human rights violations and activities. The number of Episcopal Church followers in the United States is estimated at 2 million. The […]

Iraq

Iraq: Massive Protests against US-Installed Gov’t Enter Second Week

AFP

Basra (Iraq) (AFP) – Protests in Iraq continued into their second week Monday following days of clashes that left eight people dead, with demonstrators rallying to put social problems in the spotlight. Months after Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State group, attention has turned from the military battle to the fight for jobs and […]

Featured

DC Elites Shocked at Trump Bromance with Putin but Give Israel’s Netanyahu a Pass

Juan Cole

The inside-the-beltway crowd was absolutely outraged and appalled by Trump’s performance at Helsinki. There, Trump violated all the principles of American hawkishness. He sat next to Vladimir Putin, leader of a rival power, signaling that Russia is a peer. He sided with Putin over the assessments of the CIA, the NSA and other US intelligence […]

Russia

Backed by Putin Air Force, Syrian Army rapidly takes 90% of Daraa

Rouba El Husseini

Beirut (AFP) – Syrian regime forces backed by Russia made sweeping advances on Monday against rebels holding out in the country’s vital southern zone. For nearly one month, Syria’s government has worked to capture the provinces of Daraa and Quneitra with a mix of heavy bombardment, ground attacks and surrender deals brokered by Moscow. Despite […]