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Archives: Bahrain

With Fall of Aleppo, will a Russo-Iranian Middle East challenge Trump?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - On Thursday, the Syrian government announced that the last of those who wanted to be evacuated from the East Aleppo pocket had been…

After Vienna, Arabs, Israel seek massive conventional Arms Deals: US ready to Sell

By Thalif Deen | - - UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - The nuclear agreement concluded last week between Iran and six big powers, the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, is…

Why the Arab Gulf Oil Monarchies should Welcome Iran Deal

By Miriam R Lowi | (Via al-Araby al-Jadeed ) | - - Gulf states, long-time rivals of Tehran, should seize the opportunities for regional peace and security offered by the historic deal,…

Iran’s Khamenei Praises Nuclear Deal, but slams US Foreign Policy

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…

Wikileaks Docs Reveal Saudi intrigues against Bahrain’s Arab Spring

By Faten Bushehri | (Global Voices) | - - The Saudi Cables, released by WikiLeaks, includes a treasure trove of information in secret exchanges between Saudi diplomats on restive Bahrain Saudi Arabia's…

Should Formula 1 be held in Major Human Rights Violator Bahrain?

VICE News | - "Formula 1’s annual Bahrain Grand Prix opened April 17 to global fanfare, but demonstrators in the small Gulf kingdom off the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia have been…

Artificial Billionaires: Regimes’ Crony Capitalism Stifling Middle East

World Bank Across the Middle East and North Africa, countries are being forced to face up to a harsh reality—that, left as they are now, their economies won’t create anything like enough…

US, UK look other Way as Bahrain Imprisons Dissidents (Maryam al-Khwaja is Latest)

By Nicholas McGeehan via Human Rights Watch Follow @Ncgeehan Many Bahraini activists have borne the brunt of their government’s unjust laws, unfair convictions and unlawful tactics, but few have resisted with such…

US Ally Bahrain’s Courts are Corrupt, in service of Injustice

Human Rights Watch A police officer in Bahrain who kills a protester in cold blood or beats a detainee to death might face a sentence of six months or maybe two years,…

Activists in Bahrain denounce anti-Shia Policies

(By Catherine Shakdam) Early last week political activists affiliated with Bahrain’s opposition groups delivered a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon calling for his office to take a stand against…

The War on Terror Jumps the Shark as Everyone in the Mideast accuses everyone else of Terrorism

(By Juan Cole) In early December of last year, Lebanese Shiite leader Hassan Nasrallah of Hizbullah accused Saudi Arabia of being behind the bombing of the Iranian embassy in Beirut, i.e. charged…

A New Arab Cold War: Saudi Arabia Pressures Qatar to Abandon Muslim Brotherhood, American Think Tanks

A New Arab Cold War: Saudi Arabia Pressures Qatar on Muslim Brotherhood, American Think Tanks

(By Juan Cole) Saudi Arabia's listing of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and the withdrawal of the Saudi, Kuwaiti United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain ambassadors from Qatar signal a big…

America’s Foreign Policy Challenges in the Middle East, 2014

Those who suggest that the United States as a superpower is weaker in the Middle East today than nine years ago overestimate the impact on the region of the Bush administration's frenetic…

Our Gasoline thirst fuels Mideast Fundamentalism, Violence – EVs are the Answer

The Greater Middle East has much of the proven oil and natural gas reserves in the world, and it is those hydrocarbon resources that give the region its central position in US…

Gulf Arab Press Condemns Alleged ‘Bloody’ Chemical Weapons attack in Syria (OSC)

The USG Open Source Center translates or paraphrases comment in the Gulf Arab press on the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Baathist regime. Note that these governmental establishments are…

Bahrain Cracks Down in Bid to Stop its Tamarod Movement (a la Egypt)

The Bahrain struggle is still going on two and a half years later. A coalition of Shiite groups and some Sunnis (the Waad or Promise Party) continues to agitate against the authoritarian…

Bahrain’s Agony Continues 2 Years Later

Bahrain national dialogue talks began again on Sunday as two small parties came back to the table after a token protest against what they called street violence. Last week saw the commemoration…

Bahrain dissidents Commemorate 2 Years of Protest, Condemn Repression

The USG Open Source Center translates a report from the Bahrain newspaper al-Wasat for Feb. 14, entitled "Bahraini Opposition Condemns Security Solution, 'Ill-Treatment' of Prisoners." (They mean by 'security solution' the regime's…

Bahrain’s Bloody Crackdown no Bar to Big US Weapons Sales (Elliott)

Justin Elliott writes at ProPublica: Despite Bahrain's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the U.S. has continued to provide weapons and maintenance to the small Mideast nation.Defense Department documents released to ProPublica give…

US must Pressure Bahrain on Human Rights (Strindberg)

Anders Strindberg writes in a guest column for Informed Comment All is not what it seems: Bahrain and U.S. strategic interests On the last Friday night of September, Bahraini police shot seventeen-year…