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 […]
Top Ten Ways Islamic Law forbids Terrorism
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, has been convicted on all counts in the Boston Marathon bombings. Dzhokhar and his brother Tamerlan were from a mixed Chechen and Avar family. Dzhokhar was born in Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian republic that had been part of the Communist Soviet Union. Being from a […]
President Rand Paul’s Middle East Policy
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) declared his candidacy today to be the Republican standard bearer in the 2016 election. So what would a Rand Paul presidency look like with regard to Middle East policy? Although Paul has a reputation as a Libertarian non-interventionist, he isn’t actually either one. As […]
Netanyahu slips, Reveals reason for Opposition to Iran Deal
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – US television news isn’t very good and it has clearly gotten worse over the past 20 years. In the aftermath of the Kerry-Zarif initial framework deal on nuclear energy in Iran, it seems obvious that an interview with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif would be newsworthy. But […]
Do GOP Frontrunners have an Iran policy besides Sanctions and Bombs?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – President Barack Obama’s negotiations with Iran to ensure that its nuclear enrichment program remains purely civilian, for generating electricity, ought to be bipartisan in spirit. Achieving that goal would benefit all Americans. The GOP presidential field in particular and the Republican Party in general have decided to treat […]
Yemen: Russia, Red Cross Demand halt to Bombing to Avert Humanitarian Catastrophe
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The Red Cross and the Russian Federation are both demanding a temporary cease-fire in the aerial bombardment of Yemen by a Saudi-led coalition, to allow delivery of needed humanitarian goods. Two weeks of bombing have left some 500 Yemenis dead and 1700 more wounded. Dozens of the killed […]
What if US & UN Sanctioned Israel over its Nukes as they did Iran over Enrichment?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – There is a lot of talk about nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and the ways in which an Iranian bomb would provoke Saudi Arabia and others to acquire nuclear warheads of their own. But for decades, the primary impetus to a nuclear arms race in the region […]
The von Moltke Fallacy and avoiding another World War, with Iran
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Iran has just de facto announced that it does not want a nuclear weapon, at least in this generation, and probably ever. That American and Western hawks can’t see this is a measure of their own blinkered view of reality or their own corruption. Some hawkishness is a […]
Syria: ISIL Conquest of Yarmouk Palestinian Camp refutes Israeli Propaganda
Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – On Wednesday, the extremist Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) group, known for its brutal beheadings and mass murder, took over the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp inside Damascus city limits. Palestinian women and Christians and male secularists are at special risk now. Had they been living normally in their homes in what […]
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