Middle East

Israeli cabinet approves $12.8 million to ‘strengthen’ Kiryat Arba squatter settlement on Palestinian Land

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Israeli cabinet approved on Sunday a 50 million shekel ($12.8 million) plan to “strengthen” the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba in the occupied West Bank, in a move which anti-settlement group Peace Now called a move by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “prioritize […]

Iran

Is Iran winning their Mideast Cold War with Saudi Arabia?

contributors

By Robert Harvey | (Project Syndicate) | – – LONDON – A cold war is taking place in a very hot place. A key component of the sectarian competition between Shia and Sunni Islam in the Middle East is geopolitical, with Iran facing off against Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies in a struggle for […]

African-Americans

Kurdish Women Fighting ISIL Send Solidarity to BlackLivesMatter

contributors

TeleSur | – – “You are among the most radical voices in today’s racist, sexist, capitalist world,” the YPJ wrote to Black Lives Matter. Fighters from the Kurdish Women’s Defense Units or YPJ, have sent a message of solidarity to the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. “To our black sisters and brothers! […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syrian Troops foil al-Qaeda riposte in Aleppo as France warns al-Qaeda could replace ISIL

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Even as the Syrian army defeated a counter-offensive by al-Qaeda in Syria and its battlefield allies at Aleppo, French President Francois Hollande warned that al-Qaeda should not be allowed to replace the declining Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) in Syria. On Saturday and Sunday, al-Qaeda (the Nusra Front) […]

Iraq War

Why you can’t explain the Iraq War without mentioning oil

contributors

By Bulent Gökay | (The Conversation) | – – Well before the US and UK led the invasion of Iraq, the two countries were under suspicion about their intentions for Iraq’s oil. When asked on February 6 2003 in a BBC Newsnight programme whether the war in Iraq was about oil, Tony Blair responded: Let […]

Israel/ Palestine

Palestinian mayor: West Bank water crisis worsened by decaying infrastructure

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — An ongoing water crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory has been exacerbated by neglected infrastructure, the mayor of a town in the southern occupied West Bank said on Sunday. Beit Fajjar Mayor Akram Taqatqa said that his town’s water network had not had any maintenance work […]

Bashar al-Assad

If East Aleppo Falls to Regime, is the Syrian War over?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Reuters is reporting that the Syrian Arab Army and its Shiite militia allies have taken Malah Farms to the northwest of the city and so have cut the last remaining road by which the rebel forces in East Aleppo were resupplied with armaments. (Reuters is too […]

Bush

The other Casualty of Iraq War: The Country’s Whole Health System

contributors

Ahmed Aber | (The Conversation) | – – Thirteen years ago, American and British troops launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Iraqis were promised freedom from tyranny, but the subsequent destruction of the Iraqi state apparatus as well as the cycle of violence that continues to this day destroyed the health system that cared for the […]

Culture

Goodbye to Abbas Kiarostami, a Filmmaking Legend Whose Vision ‘Transversed His Persian Roots’

contributors

By Mahsa Alimardani | ( Global Voices) | – – News trickled out of a Paris hospital on the evening of 4 July that Iranian cinematic auteur Abbas Kiarostami lost his battle against cancer at the age of 76. Kiarostami had been admitted to Tehran's Arad Hospital in mid-June, where he had undergone an operation […]