Arab World

London (al-Bab.com ) – News from Saudi Arabia about the arrests of ten or more rights activists has been viewed with a mixture of shock and surprise in western media. Just a few years ago, though, no one would have been surprised: it was simply the way the Saudi regime behaved. But that was before […]

Syria

Syria’s New Map: War Has Created Ethnic Cantons, Massively Displaced Communities

Maya Gebeily

Co-author: Rouba El Husseini | – – Beirut (AFP) – Seven years of war and massive displacement have redrawn Syria’s demographic map, erecting borders between the country’s ethnic, religious, and political communities that will be hard to erase. Displaced Syrians, analysts, and rights defenders have described to AFP a divided country where regime opponents have […]

Saudi Arabia

Saudis to let women drive but Jail a dozen Women’s Rights Activists

AFP

Dubai (AFP) – Saudi authorities have widened a crackdown on women’s rights advocates, detaining at least three more activists a month before the kingdom lifts its decades-old ban on women drivers, campaigners said Tuesday. Saudi authorities on Saturday announced the arrest of seven people, mostly identified by rights groups as women who have long campaigned […]

Donald Trump

Trump Collusion: How afraid should we be of Mohammed Bin Zayed of the UAE?

Juan Cole

Another meeting between the Trump campaign and a representative of the leader of the United Arab Emirates has been uncovered by the New York Times’s Mark Mazzetti, Ronen Bergman, and David Kirkpatrick, this one in August of 2016. The gathering at Trump Tower was arranged by George Nader, a Lebanese-American international fixer with ties to […]

Syria

With Palestinian help, Syria forcing ISIL Terrorists from last pocket near Damascus

AFP

Beirut (AFP) – Islamic State group fighters began evacuating their final stronghold in southern Damascus on Sunday, a monitor said, bringing Syria’s government closer than ever to flushing out the last threat to the capital. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has used a combination of military pressure and evacuation deals in recent months to recapture territory […]

Human Rights Watch

Saudis Arrest 7 Women’s Rights Activists who had Upstaged Crown Prince on Driving

Human Rights Watch

Beirut ( Human Rights Watch) – Saudi authorities since May 15, 2018, detained a total of seven prominent women’s rights defenders, Human Rights Watch said today. The activists have long advocated ending the ban on women driving and abolishing the discriminatory male guardianship system. Among those arrested are Eman al-Nafjan and Lujain al-Hathloul, along with […]

Displaced and Refugees

100,000 Yemenis displaced by Saudi-led Coastal Offensive, with Millions on edge of Famine

AFP

Aden (AFP) – A Yemen government offensive backed by ground troops and warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition has displaced tens of thousands of people along the country’s western coast, Amnesty International said Thursday. The rights group warned “the worst could be yet to come” after surveying civilians who made the perilous escape from front line […]

Iraq

Why Muqtada al-Sadr’s Shocking Victory in Iraq Elections isn’t that Shocking

Mustafa Habib

Baghdad (Niqash.org) The results of the Iraqi elections were surprising. But in fact, the way Iraqis were feeling about local politics beforehand indicates that nobody should actually have been all that surprised. The morning after the preliminary announcements about who had won and who had lost in the Iraqi elections, it was clear that Iraqis […]

Iraq

Still not Bush’s Iraq: Anti-American Cleric, Pro-Iran Militia and Communists ahead in Election

Sarah Benhaida

Baghdad (AFP) – An alliance spearheaded by nationalist cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose fighters once battled the United States, led Monday in surprise preliminary results from Iraq’s first poll since the defeat of the Islamic State group. In a further political upset, a rival bloc of pro-Iranian former fighters appeared to be coming in second, squeezing […]