US Foreign Policy

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said Sunday that a resolution to end the Israeli occupation will be submitted to the UN Security Council “in the coming few hours, or maybe on Monday.” Erekat told the official Palestinian radio station that he would meet US Secretary of State John Kerry in a European […]

Egypt

Israel, Egypt Implicated in Torture: Middle East Reactions to Senate Report lament own Involvement

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — That the release in Washington of a dense 450 page report on CIA torture conducted a decade ago would provoke massive demonstrations in the Middle East all along struck me as unlikely. It could perhaps provoke small terrorist groups affiliated with al-Qaeda, but those groups are already plotting out attacks […]

Bashar al-Assad

Could Years more of Syrian Civil War be Avoided by Comprehensive Talks with Iran?

contributors

By James L. Gelvin, University of California, Los Angeles The most serious attempt to bring the Syrian regime and representatives of the opposition together around a negotiating table together took place at the 2014 Geneva II peace talks. The talks were based on the Geneva Communiqué which had been signed in 2012 at a meeting […]

Iran

In Slam at Hard Liners, Iran Leader Khamenei’s Aide Calls For End To Criticism Of Nuclear Talks

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari (RFE/RL) A top adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for an end to domestic criticism of Tehran’s nuclear negotiations with major world powers. Former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, who advises Khamenei on international affairs, said on November 30 that since the supreme leader has endorsed an extension […]

Afghanistan

What if it was Russia and China invading and Bombing? The Blindness of MSM and Washington

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt (Tomdispatch.com) | — Let’s play a game, the kind that makes no sense on this single-superpower planet of ours. For a moment, do your best to suspend disbelief and imagine that there’s another superpower, great power, or even regional power somewhere that, between 2001 and 2003, launched two major wars in the […]

Iran

Iran: US War Hawks go on Offensive after Nuclear Energy Talk Deadlines are Postponed

contributors

by Jim Lobe | (Inter Press Service) | — Buoyed by the failure of the U.S. and five other powers to reach a comprehensive agreement with Iran over its nuclear programme after a week of intensive talks, pro-Israel and Republican hawks are calling for Washington to ramp up economic pressure on Tehran even while talks […]

Barack Obama

Sen. Lindsey Graham furious GOP House Benghazi Report Shows He Wasted All our Time & Money

contributors

The Young Turks | — “”Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday blasted a House GOP-led investigation that recently debunked myths about the 2012 Benghazi attack. “I think the report is full of crap,” Graham said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” The House Intelligence Committee released a report on Friday evening, which took two years […]

Featured

As SecDef Hagel Exits, an Iraq Daesh/ISIL Scorecard

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — Mosul rose up in alliance with Daesh /ISIL against the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on June 9 of this year, sparking a crisis in Obama administration foreign policy. Obama had been open to keeping some troops in Iraq, but the Iraqi parliament did not want that, and […]

Iran

Will GOP Congress block an Obama Iran Nuclear Deal?

contributors

By Carl Schreck and Luke Johnson (RFE/RL) | —- WASHINGTON — With the deadline for an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program looming, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is under increased pressure to bring home a deal that is acceptable to a skeptical Congress. If he cannot do so by November 24, he faces […]