Middle East

Baghdad (AFP) – Iraqi warplanes carried out a raid Sunday targeting Islamic State group commanders in eastern Syria, in the second such strike on the jihadists since mid-April, the premier’s office said. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered the “painful strike” which targeted “a meeting of IS commanders south of Al-Dushashiya in Syrian territory”, a statement […]

Featured

Syria: Did E. Ghouta Gas Reports cause Rebels to surrender en masse in Homs, Hama?

Juan Cole

The Syrian regime and its Russian backers have managed to expel opposition guerrilla groups from the areas just north of the central cities of Homs and Hama. The groups agreed to hand over their heavy and medium weapons and to board buses for either Idlib province or Jarabulus in Aleppo province in the north. The […]

Syria

Syria: Why tales of a western ‘regime change plot’ don’t make sense

Brian Whitaker

There’s a claim circulated endlessly on the internet that the conflict in Syria is a “regime change war” orchestrated by western powers. As far as many of the Assad regime’s defenders are concerned, this is established fact. To quote one of them – Piers Robinson, writing for the Open Democracy website – the existence of […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli Forces injure 40 Palestinians on 6th Friday of Gaza protests

Maan News Agency

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — At least 40 Palestinians were injured on Friday during ongoing massive demonstrations along the “buffer zone” between Israel and the besieged Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. Friday marked the sixth week of the “Great March of Return” protests in Gaza, as thousands of Palestinians have […]

Yemen

Saudi-led War on Yemen risks causing Millions of New Cholera Cases

AFP

By Mariëtte Le Roux | – – Paris (AFP) – War-torn Yemen, caught in what the UN terms the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, risks a resurgence of cholera that could infect millions as the rainy season advances, researchers warned Friday. Health authorities should “immediately” boost measures to mitigate risk, an international team urged in The […]

Elections

Iraqi Journalist Who Threw Shoes at Bush Running For Parliament

TeleSur

After the incident that made him famous worldwide, Muntazer Zaidi started a foundation aiming at providing relief to Iraqi victims of the U.S. occupation. Ten years after he threw both his shoes at George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, making worldwide headlines and sparking a small diplomatic crisis, journalist Muntazer Zaidi is […]

Israel/ Palestine

PEN Int’l ‘strongly condemns’ Israel court’s jailing of Palestinian for Writing Poetry

Middle East Monitor

PEN International has slammed the conviction of Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour, who was prosecuted by Israeli authorities for three social media posts, including a poem. In a statement issued yesterday, PEN – a global association of writers with a focus on freedom of expression – said it “strongly condemns the decision of the Nazareth Magistrate’s […]

Iran

Shrouded In Mystery: Mummified Body Could Be That Of Iran’s Reza Shah

Golnaz Esfandiari

Persian Monarch Reza Shah Pahlavi came to power in 1925, but he was forced to abdicate under Allied pressure in 1941. He died in exile in 1944 and his remains were returned to Iran in 1950. Has a symbol of Iran’s pre-revolutionary past come back to haunt it? Speculation that a body found near a […]

Featured

Why Trump can’t put Iran back in an Obama-style box of severe sanctions

Juan Cole

Iranian oil exports were back up to 2.5 million barrels a day or so last month, similar to the levels common before the US placed severe sanctions on the country beginning in 2012. At the low point Iran, which produces around 4 million barrels a day, was only exporting 1.5 million barrels a day, forced […]