Europe

Via Middle East Monitor By Alastair Sloan | (Middle East Monitor) | – – As the church bells rang in the New Year of 2018, Norway announced that it would be cutting arms sales to any country fighting in Yemen. A couple of weeks later, Germany said the same thing. The Netherlands and Sweden have […]

Authoritarianism

French Ex-President Sarkozy arrested over Libya Campaign money Charges

Juan Cole

TeleSur | – – Sarkozy has categorically denied receiving any campaign funding from the North African country. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was detained by police officers early Tuesday, Reuters reported. The ex head of state was being questioned by magistrates in relation to allegations he received US$61 million in funding for his 2007 election […]

Chemical Weapons

From Dead Spies to Dead Syrian Villagers, Russian Denialism on Chemical Attacks

contributors

By Brian Whitaker | ( Al-Bab.com) | – – Russia’s RT links the Skripal poisoning to British jealousy over hosting of the World Cup There’s something uncannily familiar about Russia’s propaganda antics over the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain. We’ve seen them before in Syria where Russia has steadfastly defended the Assad […]

History

‘These are the keys of this paradise’: how 700 years of Muslim rule in Spain came to an end

contributors

By Elizabeth Drayson | (The Conversation) | – – It was the moment which set Spain on a course to become the greatest power in early modern Europe. On January 2, 1492 Abdallah Muhammad bin Ali, or Muhammad XII, known as Boabdil, the last Moorish sultan of Granada and head of the Nasrid dynasty, surrendered […]

Donald Trump

Tower of Jello: The Struggle of Russia and UAE over Tillerson’s helming of State Department

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The New Yorker reports that there was a further Steele memo, prepared by the same ex-MI6 intelligence officer who authored the notorious “golden shower” dossier, which reported Russian foreign ministry boasts that they had blocked Trump from appointing Mitt Romney as secretary of state. Romney had […]

Bashar al-Assad

Britain may join US strikes against Syria if chemical weapon use proven

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told BBC radio “If we know that it has happened, and we can demonstrate it, and if there is a proposal for action where the UK could be useful then I think we should seriously consider it.” Britain would consider joining US military strikes […]

European Union

Europe’s big Plans for Iran Trade announce Independence from Trump’s Washington

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Despite the significant economic problems Iran faces, and despite the real problems in unequal income distribution, Iran’s economy is seeing bright spots that the Western press rarely admits. In the year after international sanctions were lifted on the signing of the nuclear accord, spring 2016-spring 2017, […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Church Shooting ‘Nothing To Do With Islam,’ Say Russian Muslim Leaders

contributors

RFE/RL | – – The mainstream Muslim leadership in Russia’s Daghestan region has condemned an attack that killed five people outside a Russian Orthodox church, saying that the suspect had “nothing to do with the true Islam.” In a February 19 statement, the office of the region’s chief mufti also extended condolences to the relatives […]

Bashar al-Assad

Is the Syria War over and has Putin won it?

contributors

By Danny Makki | ( OpenDemocracy.net) | – – The end game is clear: Assad, Russia and Iran will emerge victorious. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (2nd L, Front) and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin (2nd R) view a military parade in the Russian-run Hmeimim Air Base in the coastal city of Latakia, Syria, on Dec. […]