Middle East

By Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry chats with Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia on Mar. 5, 2015, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before the two and their counterparts attended a meeting of the regional Gulf Cooperation Council. Credit: U.S. State Department/public domain UNITED NATIONS, May […]

Apartheid

Palestinian Catastrophe Day: Injuries as Israeli Soldiers Attack Peaceful Nil’in Protest

contributors

By Saed Bannoura | (IMEMC News) | – More than 1,200 Palestinians, accompanied by Israeli and international peace activists, marched in the weekly protest in Ni’lin village on Friday, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, marking the 67th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (May 15 1948). Five Palestinians were shot, and dozens more […]

Featured

Obama: No Mideast NATO, but US committed to Security of Arab Gulf States

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – The countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council came to meet President Barack Obama at Camp David in search of a renewed, formalized US commitment to their security. They came away disappointed. Though they did get firm oral commitments, there is no prospect of formal treaty obligations binding […]

Afghanistan

Why Obama is bucking Saudis, Israel on Iran: Deal would much Strengthen US Security

contributors

By Brian M Downing | (Informed Comment) | – The dialog between the US and Iran moves ahead, albeit haltingly. Opposition comes from important groups in both Tehran and Washington – as well as in a few Middle Eastern capitals. In Washington, the issue is decried as a sign of the administration’s naivety regarding world […]

Iraq

Iraq’s Shiite Militias turn on their Shiite Prime Minister

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | (Niqash.org) | – (Baghdad) – Iraq’s relatively new Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, has been performing a tricky balancing act for the past few months, carefully keeping the various internal and external influencers satisfied while fighting against the extremist Islamic State group and shoring up his own power base. Up until now […]

Christianity

Palestinians welcome Pope’s Recognition of their State

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The Arabic press widely and favorably reported the news that the Vatican has recognized Palestine as a state in a new treaty with it, despite a strong protest from Israel. The recognition was of Palestine within 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital. It came as part of a treaty between the […]

Displaced and Refugees

How Europe’s Post-Revolution Abandonment of Libya led to Mediterranean Crisis

contributors

By Ioannis Chapsos | (The Conversation) | – Libya has been in a state of chaos ever since the fall of its former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, and the situation scarcely seems to be improving. But it’s not just a nightmare on land – Libya is starting to poison the Mediterranean too. Since a civil war […]

Apartheid

Obama: Palestinians deserve end to indignity of occupation

contributors

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — President Barack Obama says the United States is “taking a hard look” at its approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, telling an Arabic language news source Wednesday that Palestinians “deserve an end to occupation.” Talking to the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, President Obama said that he would never give up hope for “peace […]

Bush

Did Jeb Bush just commit a War Crime in Justifying the Iraq War?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | — Jeb Bush’s people are trying to walk back his disastrous interview with Megyn Kelly in which he said that even if he knew then what we all know now, he would have launched the war on Iraq in 2003. It is true that he doesn’t seem to […]