By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The interview of Gen. James Mattis by Wolf Blitzer at Aspen in 2013, in which the recently-retired former CENTCOM commander spoke freely on Middle East policy, has come back to haunt him now that Donald Trump has put him forward as the next Secretary of Defense. […]
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Middle East
Israel Plots Largest Settlement Expansion in Occupied Syrian Golan since 1980
IMEMC | – – Arab human rights organization resists Israeli plans to construct 1,600 settlement units, and expropriate 25,000 acres of Syrian land in the occupied Golan. Al-Marsad: Arab Human Rights Center in the Golan announced, in a press release, that it has written to the European Union, European governments and the Permanent Members of […]
Why Russia and Regime want all of Aleppo before Trump is sworn in
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In the past two days, the Syrian Arab Army and its Shiite militia allies (Hizbullah from Lebanon and others from Iraq) has taken a third to forty percent of the Eastern Aleppo pocket. The northeast zone of the pocket has collapsed, with rebel fights apparently declining […]
Right-wing Israeli master plan injures rights in Palestinian E Jerusalem
Ma’an News Agnecy | JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — A recent master plan presented by right-wing Jewish activists envisions a “greater Jerusalem” extending far beyond the current municipal boundaries, and a future for the city which sees Palestinians as virtually nonexistent, according to a Monday report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The plan, dubbed “Jerusalem 5800,” was privately […]
Is Jimmy Carter right that Obama should Recognize Palestine?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Jimmy Carter wrote and NYT op-ed yesterday in which he called on Barack Obama to arrange for the UN Security Council to recognize Palestine and pass resolutions reaffirming the illegality of Israeli squatting on Palestinian land in the West Bank. Carter points out that there are […]
Will Trump cancel Iran deal or practice the Art of the Deal?
by Mohammed Nuruzzaman | (Informed Comment) | – – US President-elect Donald Trump’s bluster about the Iran nuclear deal has created a lot of confusions and uncertainties about the fate of the deal. The anti-deal statements he made during and after the race to the White House election campaign ranged from direct threats to “tear […]
Does Turkey’s Erdogan Dream of Neighboring Mosul?
By Lucy DerTavitian | (Informed Comment) | – – The battle over Mosul appears to have ignited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s expansionist Ottoman era fantasies. He gained a few more adversaries recently when he claimed that Mosul, along with Aleppo, Western Thrace in Greece, and Kosovo, are part of Turkey. Erdogan’s comments come at […]
In Trump’s Shadow, is East Aleppo on Verge of falling to Regime, Russia?
By Juan Cole | – – In the wake of the election of Donald Trump, the regime of Bashar al-Assad and its Russian backer have thrown caution to the wind. No less than the Republican Congress, Damascus and Moscow know that Barack Obama is a lame duck. Understanding that Trump campaigned on giving Syria to […]
Fidel Castro’s Top Moments in the Middle East
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Fidel Castro is dead at 90. He presided over the only pro-USSR Communist state in the Western Hemisphere, and was therefore a thorn in the side of Washington, which insists on hegemony and capitalism in the New World. Castro was the last of the Communist guerrillas […]