Arab World

TeleSur | – – The Saudi military said it is ready to contribute thousands of troops to Syria as part of the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State group coalition. Saudi Arabia, already involved in a large aerial and ground operation in Yemen, said it would be willing to send more ground troops to Syria to fight the […]

Featured

The Final Breakup of Iraq? Barzani calls for Kurdistan Referendum

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masoud Barzani, has called for an immediate non-binding referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan over whether its people want to secede from Iraq and form an independent Kurdish state. A delegation from the KRG visited Baghdad yesterday, as well, headed by […]

Russia

Could Saudi Arabia’s grip on oil prices bring Russia to its knees?

contributors

James Henderson | (The Conversation) | – – When Saudi Arabia led an OPEC decision to end a restraint put on oil production in November 2014, it marked the beginning of a new era in oil economics. It has given us a tumbling oil price, prompted huge losses and job cuts at oil firms like […]

Climate Change

“Ai Weiwei Will Not Let You Forget About Europe’s Refugee Crisis (AJ+)”

Nicholas Kolenda

Al Jazeera+ reminds the world about the ongoing refugee crisis sparked by a mass exodus of peoples from Syria…

Afghanistan

Iran Dragooning Thousands of Undocumented Afghans as Cannon Fodder in Syria

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – (New York) – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has recruited thousands of undocumented Afghans living there to fight in Syria since at least November 2013, Human Rights Watch said today, and a few have reported that Iranian authorities coerced them. Iran has urged the Afghans to defend Shia sacred […]

Featured

ISIL kills 70 in bombing of Shiite Area, Damascus, in bid to derail Talks

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) claimed responsibility Sunday for bomb attacks in the Syrian capital of Damascus that seem likely to have aimed at derailing the tentative talks in Geneva. First, a Daesh agent set off a car bomb next to a bus transporting Shiite fighters for the […]

Displaced and Refugees

Not just Madaya: A million people under Food Sieges in Mideast

contributors

By Nadia Prupis, staff writer | ( Commondreams.org) | – – Despite international laws prohibiting the use of starvation against civilians, forces on all sides preventing aid from reaching blockaded towns in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq As crises in the Middle East escalate, food has become a weapon of war. A new Associated Press analysis […]

Syria

World can Bomb Syria but Can’t negotiate end to War

contributors

By Simon Mabon | (The Conversation) | – – International talks meant to help resolve the Syrian Crisis are due to commence in Geneva, but a range of impossible problems still stand in the way. Now nearly five years old, the conflict has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced around 11m people. Other […]

Saudi Arabia

Will Yemen be the Graveyard of the new Saudi Empire?

contributors

By Helen Lackner | ( OpenDemocracy) | – – Those deciding for war in March 2015 gave little thought to Yemeni realities, military, logistic, topographic, social or political, human cost, or an exit strategy. But questions are being raised. Defence Minister Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, April 2014. Wikicommons/Mazen AlDarrab. Some rights reserved.In 1934 the newly […]