Arab World

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Memorial Day should be rethought, as a day to mourn the death and destruction caused by war. Trump is using a legal loophole to declare an emergency in the Gulf and sell Saudi Arabia and its allies $8 billion in weaponry despite the opposition of Congress. Both houses of Congress […]

Donald Trump

Mission Accomplished? Could US-Iran Conflict Tear Iraq Apart Again?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The rising tensions between the Trump administration and Iran have the potential to roil the entire Middle East, and no country feels the heat more than Iraq, which has warm relations both with the US and Iran, as Egyptian journalist Islam Muhammad argues in a wideranging report. Iraqi nationalist and […]

Bashar al-Assad

Leaked Document Revives Controversy over Syria Chemical Attacks

Brian Whitaker

(Al-Bab.com – A leaked document which contradicts key findings of an official investigation into chemical weapons in Syria has surfaced on the internet. Described as an “engineering assessment” and marked “draft for internal review”, it appears to have been written by an employee of the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) – the international […]

Yemen

The Death Lobby in Washington and the Yemen War from Hell

Tomdispatch

By Mashal Hashem and James Allen | – (Tomdispatch.com) – A springtime wedding in Northern Yemen’s Al-Raqah village took place in April 2018, a moment of reprieve from the turmoil and devastation of that war-torn country, a moment to celebrate life, love, and the birth of a new family. From the tents constructed for the […]

Houthi

The New Drone Wars: Houthis hit Saudi Oil Pumping Stations, avenging Riyadh’s Strikes on Sana’a

Middle East Monitor

The security spokesperson for the Presidency of the State Security in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced that Aramco oil pumping stations in the provinces of Al Duwadimi and Afif in Riyadh were attacked. The Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources stressed that the “terrorist attack” targeted two pumping stations for a pipeline, pointing […]

Arab Spring

How the Mideast Officer Corps and Trump derailed the Arab Spring– and Hope

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – “Al-Shebab,” said my student Jerry early in the fall 2010 semester. “We’re calling our small group al-Shebab. It means ‘The Youth.’” From his name alone, I wouldn’t have guessed his background, but he was proud of his family’s Egyptian roots and had convinced his classmates to give their group an Arabic […]

Yemen

The Yemen War is one of the Most Destructive since the Cold War: UN

Middle East Monitor

A recent UN report sheds light on the devastating humanitarian and economic impact of the war in Yemen and how it sets back human development there more than 20 years, Anadolu reports. The report by the organization’s development program (UNDP) highlights the humanitarian situation there, which was one of the worst in the world even […]

Featured

In our National Interest? 250K Yemenis now Starving to Death, with 233K already dead in Trump-Backed War

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump’s policy in Yemen might best be described as “malign neglect.” The US is giving strategic and logistical support, and above all political legitimacy to a brutal war being waged on little Yemen by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and their coalition allies (though that group seems to be […]

Saudi Arabia

Saudis Accused of Serious Crimes Aided in Fleeing US as Officials Turn Blind Eye

ProPublica

By Sebastian Rotella and Tim Golden (ProPublica), with Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, The Oregonian/OregonLive This story was co-published with The Oregonian/OregonLive. The FBI, Department of Homeland Security and other agencies have known for years that Saudi diplomats were helping Saudi fugitives. But Washington avoided even raising the problem out of concern that it might hurt Saudi […]