Arab World

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Two visions of the future of Gaza are congealing, in two different power centers. One is the Arab and Muslim foreign ministers who met Monday in Istanbul, including Türkiye, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Pakistan, and Indonesia. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Tuesday morning that the […]

Archaeology

Egypt’s Magnificent new Museum: Nationalism, Tourism, and the Economy

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Egypt’s new billion-dollar museum near the Giza pyramids opened on Saturday. It has 100,000 artifacts, including a massive statue of Ramses II (1279 BCE – 1213 BCE). It may be the biggest museum in the world. Given that Egypt is now a rigid dictatorship with few rights for citizens, the […]

Featured

With China’s Help, Saudi Arabia is Deploying Solar Power Faster than any Country in History

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Jeffrey Beyer and Stephen Gitonga of the UN Development Program present an overview of Saudi Arabia’s full court press to get 50% of its electricity from renewables by 2030. The kingdom is aware that fossil fuels, the source of its fabulous wealth, are on their way out. Its leaders want […]

Agrovoltaics

Iraqi Kurdistan aims at 3 Gigawatts of Solar, as Households and Villages Rush to Rooftop Panels

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iraqi Kurdistan is developing an interest in sustainable energy, despite being an oil exporter via Kirkuk. Solar provides little of Iraq’s electricity at the moment, but the situation is set to change rapidly over the next decade. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has set a goal of putting in 3 […]

Democracy

Syria’s new Leader promised Democracy, but excluded Women from Parliamentary Elections

The Conversation

By Kinda Alsamara, The University of Queensland; Eleanor Gordon, Monash University, and Elliot Dolan-Evans, Monash University (The Conversation) – Women’s political participation is often treated as a measure of a country’s commitment to equality and democracy. Earlier this year, Syria’s new leader, President Ahmed al-Sharaa, described his country as moving in a “democratic direction” after […]

Children

Saudi Arabia: Spate of Executions of Child Offenders

Human Rights Watch

300th Person Executed in Saudi Arabia in 2025

Donald Trump

Terror from the Skies in the Middle East: Israel and the Ghost of Bomber Harris

Juan Cole

Here is my essay for this week’s Tomdispatch.com . Check out the great Tom Engelhardt’s introduction at that site, where he reminds us of the eerie similarity of today’s Washington strategy toward the Middle East, of intensive bombardment, to that of Nixon-Kissinger in Southeast Asia. For people of my generation, it raises the sad question […]

Israel

Lebanon: Seek Justice for Journalists Killed by Israeli Forces

Human Rights Watch

2 Years since Killing of Issam Abdallah; Attacks on Civilians, Media Continue Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Lebanon’s announcement on October 9, 2025, that it has tasked the Justice Ministry with assessing the legal measures that may be taken following Israeli attacks on journalists during the last war offers a fresh opportunity to achieve […]

Democracy

Syria’s Parliamentary Election Results look Alarmingly like Iraq 2005, which produced a Civil War

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Syria’s parliamentary elections on October 5 raised alarm flags for me on several grounds. First, they were not conducted on the basis of a direct vote. Sixty “constituencies” were established to elect 121 members of the People’s Assembly of Syria (only 119 were actually elected). Another 70 members will be […]