Middle East

US Middle East policy often seemed similar to Putin’s Plot on America via Trump

Trump will regret Making the Iran Nuclear Deal a two-way relationship

By Jacopo Scita | (Informed Comment) | – – When President Trump, in the middle of his first speech at the United Nations, referred to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into” he made the case that, under his administration, Washington […]

Archaeology

A mid-6th Century (Christian?) proto-Arabic Inscription from N. Arabia Mentioning Al-Ilah

Juan Cole

(Politically oriented readers of IC please excuse this reprint of a path-breaking but extremely technical discussion in Arabian religious and linguistic history. It is highly important for the study of the beginnings of Islam, since it discusses an inscription from al-Jawf, Saudi Arabia dated to 548 CE, i.e. some sixty years before the beginning of […]

Donald Trump

Rebuking Trump, IAEA Again Certifies Iran Compliance on Nuclear Deal

contributors

Zein Basravi | Al Jazeera English | (Video News Report) | – – “Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was in Tehran on Sunday, his first visit since US President Donald Trump told Congress that Iran is not complying with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), more commonly known as […]

Israel/ Palestine

Widespread theft of Palestinian olive harvest by Israeli Squatters

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Over the past few days, Israeli settlers have reportedly stolen the harvest of hundreds of Palestinian olive trees in the northern occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian sources. Official Palestinian Authority (PA)-owned Wafa news agency reported that Israeli settlers from the illegal Kedumim settlement, stole the […]

Featured

Barzani gambled it all and Lost– Kurdistan Pres. ending Career

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani has written a letter to the parliament of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government announcing that he will not run for president again and will go out of office on November 1 as his much-extended term of office ends. Barzani had taken heart from […]

Iraq

Iraq: How Youtube & Facebook Fake News Raised Kurdish-Shiite Tensions

Juan Cole

By Histyar Qader | Erbil | (Niqash.org) | – – After clashes in northern Iraq this week, hundreds of fake pictures have flooded Iraqi social media. Some are real, some not, but leaders on both sides say it’s leading to a dangerous escalation of tensions. Given the partisan nature of much of the media funding […]

Feminism

Saudi women between online resistance and new physical realities

contributors

Heyla Selim | ( GlobalVoices.net ) | – – What role did collective action, and social media play in Saudi Arabia’s decision to lift its ban on women driving? Picture of the author taken in 2015 by Lujain Mirza as part of her research project about visual representation of Saudi Women at Brighton University. All […]

Featured

Continued Conflict: Iraqi PM rejects Kurdish offer, insists Referendum be Annulled

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi was in Tehran on Thursday for consultations with the Iranian government (no, Abadi isn’t afraid of Trump.). During his meeting with Iranian vice president Ishaq Jahangiri, his office released a statement replying to Massoud Barzani. Barzani is the president of the […]