US Foreign Policy

( RFE/RL ) – When Iranian aerospace engineer Ayoob Entezari died on May 31, authorities handed his family a letter of appreciation in which they referred to him as a “martyr,” suggesting that he had been killed. Soon after, authorities in the central city of Yazd backtracked, saying the wording in the letter was a […]

International Criminal Court

Libya: Russia’s Far Right Wagner Group set Landmines, Booby Traps near Capital, Tripoli

Human Rights Watch

International Criminal Court Must Investigate

Authoritarianism

Biden Reverses himself on Saudi “Pariah,” needing Riyadh’s Oil to Punish Putin for Ukraine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden ran on making Saudi Arabia a “pariah,” given that the CIA accused Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of authorizing the murder in 2018 of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Istanbul Saudi consulate. Biden and a bipartisan majority in the US Congress were also upset about […]

Ireland

Sympathy for Colonized Ireland in the US Gov’t Doesn’t Extent to Colonized Palestine

Mohammed Samaana

Belfast (Special to Informed Comment) – A recent Congressional cross-party delegation visit to the UK and Ireland in order to save the Good Friday Agreement (which had paved the way for peace on the island of Ireland) was marked by controversy. Delegation leader Richard Neal (D-MA) used the word “planter” which was used in the […]

European Union

If Western Countries demand that Russia follow International Law, Why don’t They Themselves?

The Conversation

By Amyn Sajoo, Simon Fraser University | – With a passion that recalls the aftermath of the Second World War, politicians and commentators are demanding a global order that takes seriously the rules of the United Nations Charter — notably on respect for sovereignty and fundamental human rights. While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the […]

Bashar al-Assad

On Memorial Day, let’s get the 900 US Troops out of Syria and away from any War with Russia or Iran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Memorial Day or Decoration Day (referring to the decoration of the graves of soldiers killed in combat) began after the Civil War and has been commemorated since 1868. It is no wonder that the mourning began then. Historian J. David Hacker has estimated that 750,000 troops died in the war, […]

Climate Crisis

Oil Profiteering: High Gas Prices, Climate Change, and the War in Ukraine share a Common Cause

OtherWords

By Lindsay Owens and Hebah Kassem | – ( Afterwords.org) – Amid the ongoing atrocities in Ukraine, rising gas prices, and the existential threat of climate change, policymakers in Washington have a long list of crises to address. But there’s one step that could help mitigate all of them: reducing our dependence on oil — […]

Afghanistan

Free Her Face’: Male Afghan Journalists Don Masks, Express Solidarity With Female Colleagues

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi | – (RFL/RE ) – Male Afghan TV presenters have donned face masks on air in a show of solidarity with female colleagues who were ordered by the Taliban to cover their faces. The Taliban issued a decree earlier this month that ordered women to cover their faces in public by […]

Featured

In Final Slap to Bush-Era Neoconservatives, Iraq Criminalizes Contacts with Israel

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Neoconservatives who pushed for the Bush-Cheney war on Iraq in 2003 hoped that by toppling the Arab nationalist dictator Saddam Hussein they could recreate Iraq as a country friendly to US interests and regional allies like Israel. I was told by one military officer that he was in the […]