By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s clerical Leader, appeared to be attempting to mollify hard liners on Friday in his Friday prayers addresses. On the one hand, he praised the negotiators at Vienna who in long and arduous negotiations crafted the deal on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. He […]
Iran Deal: Winners & Losers in the Greater Middle East
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The end of most UN and European sanctions on Iran and the likely end of US third party sanctions are shaping how regional states see the Vienna agreement between Iran and the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. Iran is expected to […]
Chattanooga: Assault Weapons a Security Problem for U.S. (Cole @ Truthdig)
By Juan Cole | (Truthdig) | – – My column is out in Truthdig.com Excerpt: The United States is peculiarly prone to mass killings by people armed with semi-automatic weapons. There is no good reason for ordinary citizens to own military-style weapons, and they have long posed a threat to American national security. The mass […]
Iran Deal: Why doesn’t US Media interview Real Allies on American Policy?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – So after France and Britain and Germany conducted negotiations with Iran over its civilian nuclear enrichment program alongside the United States, you would expect American television news eagerly to seek out interviews on the deal from David Cameron, Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel– or foreign ministers […]
Did rise of Daesh/ ISIL ensure Iran Nuclear Deal?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In Iraq on Tuesday, Iraq militias and the Iraqi military launched a counter-attack on Falluja with the ultimate aim of driving Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) out of al-Anbar Province. The operation follows the successful liberation of Tikrit, north of Baghdad, from Daesh by these same forces. In […]
That Time Ronald Reagan opened Iran and Illegally sold Khomeini Weapons
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Reagan administration in the 1980s was buffeted by two policy drives toward Iran. On the one hand, Reagan ally Saudi Arabia supported Iraq, which illegally launched a war on the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1980 in order to steal its oil-rich Khuzistan Province. Reagan […]
No, Mr. Netanyahu, Iran isn’t trying to Take over the world & it isn’t ISIL
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanahu charged last week that Iran was the major sponsor of terrorism in the world and that it wants to take over the whole world. He also likened Iran to the faux caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Iran is not trying to […]
How the Washington Post got Taken in by Syria’s Taliban
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) Making alliances of convenience is a perennial temptation in Washington, where policy-makers often have more ambition than ethics or common sense. Thus, the Washington Post just published a slick op-ed by a representative of the Islamic Movement of Syrian Free Men (Ahrar al-Sham) claiming that the group is “moderate” […]
Omar Sharif didn’t have to Play a Terrorist
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Omar Sharif is dead at 83. Born Michel Chalhoub in Alexandria to Lebanese Christian parents in 1932, he changed his name and converted to Islam in 1955 in order to marry his co-star Faten Hamama. The two were a power couple in the Cairo film world […]
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