Qatar

Belfast (Informed Comment) – The entire Arab world is excited as one of the world biggest sports events, the FIFA World Cup is held in an Arab Muslim country for the first time. This excitement is because of decades of collective feeling of frustration with being portrayed by Western media as backward, uncivilized and savage. […]

Featured

How the Ukraine Crisis is Changing Biden’s Mideast Policy: The Rise and Rise of Qatar

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Russia’s massing of over 100,000 troops around Ukraine has provoked a diplomatic and military crisis, but also a potential energy crisis. That is because Europe gets about one third of its natural gas from the Russian Federation, and Germany gets about half of its from that source. Natural gas prices […]

journalism

‘Rightly’ as a New Soft Power Tool: The Motivation behind Al Jazeera’s American Right-Wing Platform

Hamdullah Baycar

Exeter (Special to Informed Comment) – Al Jazeera announcement to launch a right-wing media platform, Rightly, in the US surprised many people, including its employees. Over 100 hundred employees from Al Jazeera penned an open letter to the Al Jazeera administration asking the halt of the platform based on not fitting their ‘values.’ Michael Weaver, […]

Arab Spring

Already a New Boss in Town: Saudis, afraid of Biden, Hurry to End their Blockade on Qatar

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Saudi Arabia announced Monday that it would lift its land and sea blockade against Qatar, and that Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (the UAE) would allow Qatari aircraft to fly through their air space again. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt announced their boycott on the small peninsula […]

Qatar

Qatar: Significant Reforms for Gulf Labor give Workers new Freedoms

Human Rights Watch

( Human Rights Watch ) – (Beirut) – The success of the significant labor reform measures that Qatar introduced on September 8, 2020, will depend on how well the government enforces and monitors them, Human Rights Watch said today. The reforms will allow migrant workers to change jobs without employer permission and set a higher […]

Donald Trump

US Bases in Qatar, UAE go on Alert as Iran Fires Ballistic Missiles at Mock-up of US Aircraft Carrier

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sepahnews quotes Brigadier Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Aerospace Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), as saying that his unit was able to launch ballistic missiles from bunkers the depths of the earth for the first time in world history. (He did not explain what he meant […]

Bahrain

Qatar’s Victory over Saudi, UAE Blockade Shows UN Court can be Weapon of the Weak

Middle East Monitor

By Daud Abdullah | – A press release issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 14 July described its judgement against Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and UAE as “final, without appeal and binding on the Parties.” Since June 2017, the four countries have imposed a land, air and sea blockade against the State […]

Bahrain

Gulf Arab Women were Finally making Progress, but will the Covid-19 Crash and Austerity set them Back?

The Conversation

By Humaira Hansrod | – Citizens of Saudi Arabia are having to get used to something that has long been an unpleasant fact of life in most parts of the world. On July 1, the kingdom tripled the VAT levied on consumer goods and services from 5% to 15%. There were reports of frantic stockpiling […]

Donald Trump

Chump: Before Trump fell for Antifa Conspiracy Theory, He Fell for Saudi Blockade of US Ally Qatar

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump produced widespread disgust on Tuesday by accusing a 75-year-old peace activist in Buffalo New York who was put in the emergency room by police of being an Antifa plant. It is a lie. The man is part of the pacifist Catholic Worker movement, there is no Antifa (anti-Fascist) organization […]