Middle East

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday said it welcomed the decision to open an initial probe on Israeli war crimes at the International Criminal Court. The ministry said in a statement that the ICC decision was a positive and important step towards achieving justice and guaranteeing respect of international law. Palestine […]

Iran

As Obama warns of veto re: GOP Sanctions, Iran says ‘Political Will’ can aid Nuclear Talks

contributors

By RFE/RL | — GENEVA — Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says "political will" is needed to make progress in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program but that he believes such progress is "possible." Zarif returned to Geneva late on January 16 following talks in Paris with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and French Foreign […]

Iraq

US Mission Creep in Iraq, Part Deux

contributors

By Peter Van Buren | (Tomdispatch.com) — The current American war in Iraq is a struggle in search of a goal. It began in August as a humanitarian intervention, morphed into a campaign to protect Americans in-country, became a plan to defend the Kurds, followed by a full-on crusade to defeat the new Islamic State […]

Islam

Muslim-Jewish Coexistence: Mark Cohen on its History and Relevance Today

contributors

by JOSEPH RICHARD PREVILLE for ISLAMiCommentary Professor Mark R. Cohen delivering a lecture to a seminar room full of professors and graduate students at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (December 2014)Cohen gave two lectures there: “What is the Geniza and What Does it Tell Us?” and “The Importance of the Geniza for Islamic History” […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

Will France intervene in Yemen after its al-Qaeda Claims Paris Attacks?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in south Yemen, claimed on Wednesday to have been behind the attacks in Charlie Hebdo in Paris last week. Said and Sharif Kouashi are known to have visited Yemen in 2011 for weapons training, assisted by Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born terrorist later […]

Apartheid

Gaza – reduced to Rubble by Israel – suffers cold, hungry winter: ‘conditions catastrophic’

contributors

RT | — “Many thousands of Gazans face a freezing winter living in tents pitched amid the rubble of their ruined homes – as the UN is urging half a billion dollars in emergency aid for shelter to the war-battered region.” RT: “Cold, dark & hungry: Gaza suffers through winter, ‘conditions catastrophic’”

Apartheid

Settlers, Olives, and Occupation: Voices from the West Bank

contributors

Vice News | — “In response to last year’s Gaza conflict, the Israeli government announced the construction of further settlements in the West Bank — a move condemned by the international community for escalating tensions that were already highly fraught. The expansion of the settlements has consumed privately owned Palestinian land, causing the destruction of […]

France

Hezbollah’s Surprising Denunciation of Paris Attacks: is it Courting the West?

contributors

By Rola El-Husseini | (Special to Informed Comment) In a speech in Beirut on January 9, 2014, on the occasion of the birth of the Prophet Mohammed, Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah declared that killings and beheadings by “takfiris” (excommunicators) are more harmful to Islam than are cartoons or books mocking the Prophet. This was […]

Barack Obama

New Republican Majority Wants to intervene in Obama’s Iran Talks

contributors

By Luke Johnson | (RFE/RL) WASHINGTON — Should U.S. President Barack Obama and Western powers reach a nuclear deal with Iran, they could face a new hurdle: a Republican Congress. Republicans are eyeing various Iran-related measures, including legislation to impose fresh sanctions should talks fail and to require congressional review of any deal. The Obama […]