Middle East

By Jeff Sparrow, The University of Melbourne (The Conversation) – We must ask for no references to Gaza/Palestine/Israel as it’s a very sensitive topic in our area. If these topics are included it drastically changes our risk management plans for events. Thus for safety and harmony we kindly ask the guest speakers avoid these topics […]

Featured

Turkish Right celebrates Syrian Rebel Offensive, while Left Fears Partition and Turmoil

Volkan Isbasaran

Istanbul (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – After four years of frozen conflict, Syrian rebels, mainly from the Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), launched a surprise offensive against President Bashar al-Assad’s government in northwestern Syria on November 27. The rebels swiftly captured Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, marking […]

Syria

The Russia – Iran – Assad ‘Axis of the Vulnerable’ is Cracking in Syria

The Conversation

By Scott Lucas, University College Dublin (The Conversation) – The so-called “axis of the vulnerable” is breaking in Syria. Starting in 2016, Russia and Iran, propping up the regime of Bashar al-Assad, needed more than a year of bombing, ground assaults and siege to break the rebel opposition in the east of Syria’s largest city, […]

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“It is like an Apocalypse:” Amnesty International finds Israel is deliberately undertaking Genocide against Palestinians of Gaza

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Amnesty International has just put out a detailed report based on its own fieldwork and masses of other evidence finding that Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The organization joins several other international bodies in coming to that conclusion, and it is one that I endorsed in […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel is pushing Political Allies in Congress to outlaw Conversations about the Genocide in Gaza; it won’t Work

Ramzy Baroud

( The Middle East Monitor ) – The ongoing genocide in Gaza is unprecedented. Nothing that Israel and its supporters can say or do will avoid the historical accountability of the extermination of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. The above assertion is critical, both for ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine and achieving […]

Syria

The spectacular Capture of Aleppo by Opposition Forces plunges Syria into an uncertain Future

The Conversation

By Mehmet Ozalp, Charles Sturt University (The Conversation) – The forgotten Syrian civil war has again flared up with the spectacular capture of Aleppo by opposition forces. A complex set of circumstances created the right time for rebels to strike, plunging Syria into an uncertain future and catching President Bashar al-Assad by surprise. The Syrian […]

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Shiite Iraqi PM to Türkiye: Baghdad will not be a Mere Spectator as Sunni Radicals take Syria

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia’ al-Sudani called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday and read him the riot act about the lightning conquests in northern Syria of Sunni rebels. Al-Sudani cautioned that “Iraq will not be a mere spectator to the grave repercussions of the events taking place in […]

Hizbullah

Truce in Lebanon: Can Diplomacy Rise from the Ruins?

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink ) – On November 26th, Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement for a 60-day truce, during which Israel and Hezbollah are both supposed to withdraw from the area of Lebanon south of the Litani River. The agreement is based on the terms of UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the previous […]

Featured

“Trump is the one to Blame” for Current Iran Crisis: An Interview with Gary Sick (Pt. 2)

Fariba Amini

This is part II of Fariba Amini’s two-part interview with Columbia University Political Scientist and former National Security Council Adviser (to President Jimmy Carter) Gary Sick, among America’s foremost Iran specialists. Part I is here. Gary Sick. Courtesy Columbia University. Fariba Amini: How do you see Trump’s internal and foreign policy agenda in the coming […]