Middle East

By IMEMC | – Solar panels finally brought electricity to the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the West Bank, but the residents’ joy was short lived. A few weeks after the panels were installed, Israeli authorities confiscated them, indicating the latest chapter in Israel’s long battle to quash the strategically located village. PNN reports […]

Central Intelligence Agency

US Increases Intelligence-Sharing With Saudi Arabia Over Yemen Strikes

contributors

By Nadia Prupis, staff writer | (Commondreams.org) – U.S. ups ‘sensitive’ intelligence-sharing with Saudis to help them get ‘better sense of the battlefield,’ while aid groups describe disaster on the ground in Yemen As the humanitarian crisis in Yemen worsens, the U.S. is stepping up its role in supporting Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign against the […]

censorship

Israeli Forces Target Journalists in West Bank

contributors

By Mel Frykberg | – KAFR QADDOUM, West Bank (IPS) – It is becoming increasingly risky to cover clashes and protests between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters in the West Bank as the number of journalists injured, in what appears to be deliberate targeting by Israeli security forces, continues to rise. Israeli commander who […]

Apartheid

Homeless in Gaza: UN only has funds to rebuild 200 of 9K homes Destroyed by Israelis

contributors

By IMEMC | – UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA has only received funding to reconstruct 200 of the 9,061 houses destroyed in Gaza, said a report released on Thursday. While some 60,000 Palestine refugee families have been able to complete the repair of their damaged homes with assistance provided through UNRWA, the majority of […]

Displaced and Refugees

Few escape routes for refugees and migrants trapped in Yemen

contributors

By Kristy Siegfried | – LONDON (IRIN) – As the Saudi-led aerial bombardment of Yemen intensifies and a full-scale civil war appears increasingly inevitable, there are few immediate escape routes for well over a million African migrants and refugees in the country. Ports are closed and air traffic is largely restricted to evacuation flights for […]

Iran

Will A Nuclear Deal Bring The U.S. And Iran Together?

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari | (RFE/RL) – “What should I wear, now that we will be hanging out with the Americans?” It’s a joke that was making the rounds among Iranians after a framework nuclear deal with world powers was hammered out after lengthy negotiations in Switzerland. And it reflects the wish of many Iranians for […]

Featured

Iran: What did Khamenei really say about the Lausanne Agreement, and Why?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s paramount leader, spoke out on Thursday about the framework agreement for Iran’s negotiations over its nuclear enrichment program with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5 + 1). The speech is all over the place and seems to me to […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

Yemen War threatens Humanitarian Catastrophe

contributors

By Sophia Dingli | (The Conversation) – Yemen’s humanitarian crisis is by all accounts getting worse by the day, and the city of Aden has become a major flashpoint. Aden is caught in a stand-off between Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the government they are trying to overthrow. On April 5, the Houthis claimed […]

Iraq

ISIL Momentum In Iraq Has ‘Halted’: VP Joe Biden

contributors

By RFE/RL | – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has said the momentum of Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq has stalled. “ISIL’s [IS] momentum in Iraq has halted, and in many places has been flat-out reversed,” he said in Washington on April 9. He cautioned, “There’s still a long fight ahead — I don’t […]