Arab World

By Moritz Pieper | (The Conversation) | – – Standing on the Russian military airbase at Khmeimim on his December visit to Syria, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia will withdraw the bulk of its forces from Syria following the “successful intervention” in Syria’s armed conflict. This is Putin’s second withdrawal announcement within two years. And […]

Epidemics

Now Diptheria besets Yemen, along with Saudi Bombs and Blockade

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – Yemen, ravaged by war, hunger and disease, is seeing a spike in diphtheria cases that will inevitably erupt into a larger, deadly outbreak because so few people have been immunized, aid officials said on Wednesday. At highest risk are children, who account for many of the more than 280 […]

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia: The Coming Crisis in the Kingdom

contributors

By Pierce Gootee | (TeleSur) | – – The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has, in recent months, tightened their blockade on the war-ravaged country of Yemen. The justification for this tightening was the launch of a long-range ballistic missile by Houthi rebels towards the capital city of Riyadh in November. Despite these heavy-handed tactics in […]

art and photography

Saudi Prince who Bought da Vinci Painting could have given Sight to 9 Million Instead

contributors

By Peter Singer | (Project Syndicate) | – – A Saudi prince has been revealed to be the buyer of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” for which he spent $450.3 million. Had he given the money to the poor, as the subject of the painting instructed another rich man, he could have restored eyesight to […]

Christianity

Christian Palestinians Reject meeting with Mike Pence

contributors

IMEMC News | – – Christian Palestinians, along with Muslims, held a protest in front of the historic Church of the Nativity, after Sunday prayers, to express their rejection of US president Donald Trump’s decision to consider Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel. The protesters assured that they would not meet with Trump’s second […]

Featured

Why Aren’t Americans Celebrating fall of ISIL State? It is a bogeyman

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Other people are celebrating the defeat of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on the battlefield and its destruction as a territorial state. Russia issued an announcement last week that ISIL has been wiped out in Syria. Iraqi prime minister Haydar al-Abadi said Saturday that Iraq had been completely […]

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Blockade depriving Yemen Civilians of Food, Hospitals–UN should Sanction Riyadh (HRW)

contributors

Human rights Watch | – – The Saudi-led coalition’s broad restrictions on aid and essential goods to Yemen’s civilian population are worsening the country’s humanitarian catastrophe. (Beirut) – The Saudi-led coalition’s broad restrictions on aid and essential goods to Yemen’s civilian population are worsening the country’s humanitarian catastrophe, Human Rights Watch said today. Unless the […]

art and photography

Saudi Crown Prince splashed $450 mn on Jesus painting

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – Mystery over the secret buyer of a record $450.3 million painting was solved after it was discovered that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman had used a proxy to get hold of one of the prized assets in the arts world. The power hungry de-facto ruler of the Kingdom […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Gift to Hizbullah weakens Saudi Hand in Beirut

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Hassan Nasrullah, the secretary general of Lebanon’s Hizbullah, called for a new Palestinian uprising or intifada in the wake of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. He said Trump had thereby issued “A second Balfour Declaration.” (The first was in 1917 when the British cabinet […]