Arab World

by Laurent Lozano | – – Jerusalem (AFP) – Israel’s army said Thursday it had carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria overnight after rocket fire towards its forces which it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies. The incident came after weeks of rising tensions and followed US […]

Featured

No, Iran and Hizbullah haven’t taken over Lebanon: it is a multiparty Election

Juan Cole

Lebanon held the first parliamentary elections since 2009 (they are supposed to be every 4 years but the Syrian civil war and political gridlock made it difficult to meet that schedule until now).* Given all the talk of Trump pulling out of the Iran deal in part because of Tehran’s supposed regional dominance, the results […]

Iraq

Now Iraq is regularly bombing Syria . . . to Blast ISIL Remnants

AFP

Baghdad (AFP) – Iraqi warplanes carried out a raid Sunday targeting Islamic State group commanders in eastern Syria, in the second such strike on the jihadists since mid-April, the premier’s office said. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered the “painful strike” which targeted “a meeting of IS commanders south of Al-Dushashiya in Syrian territory”, a statement […]

Featured

Syria: Did E. Ghouta Gas Reports cause Rebels to surrender en masse in Homs, Hama?

Juan Cole

The Syrian regime and its Russian backers have managed to expel opposition guerrilla groups from the areas just north of the central cities of Homs and Hama. The groups agreed to hand over their heavy and medium weapons and to board buses for either Idlib province or Jarabulus in Aleppo province in the north. The […]

Syria

Syria: Why tales of a western ‘regime change plot’ don’t make sense

Brian Whitaker

There’s a claim circulated endlessly on the internet that the conflict in Syria is a “regime change war” orchestrated by western powers. As far as many of the Assad regime’s defenders are concerned, this is established fact. To quote one of them – Piers Robinson, writing for the Open Democracy website – the existence of […]

Yemen

Saudi-led War on Yemen risks causing Millions of New Cholera Cases

AFP

By Mariëtte Le Roux | – – Paris (AFP) – War-torn Yemen, caught in what the UN terms the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, risks a resurgence of cholera that could infect millions as the rainy season advances, researchers warned Friday. Health authorities should “immediately” boost measures to mitigate risk, an international team urged in The […]

Elections

Iraqi Journalist Who Threw Shoes at Bush Running For Parliament

TeleSur

After the incident that made him famous worldwide, Muntazer Zaidi started a foundation aiming at providing relief to Iraqi victims of the U.S. occupation. Ten years after he threw both his shoes at George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, making worldwide headlines and sparking a small diplomatic crisis, journalist Muntazer Zaidi is […]

Houthi

US Troops fighting for Saudis against Houthis in Yemen

AFP

Washington (AFP) – A team of elite US Green Beret commandos deployed to the Saudi border of Yemen last year to help find and destroy Huthi rebel missile caches, the New York Times reported Thursday. Since Yemen’s brutal conflict erupted three years ago, Huthi rebels have fired multiple ballistic missiles toward Riyadh and other Saudi […]

Arms Sales

Saudi Arabia world’s 3rd highest military spender but 41st in World Population

Middle East Monitor

Saudi Arabia has ranked third across the world with military spending which reached $69.4 billion in 2017. It replaces Russia, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a new report on Wednesday. According to the report, military spending across the world has increased by 1.1 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year […]