UAE

Does Mideast Panopticon — Urban Surveillance and Digital Identities — foretell our Dystopian Future?

By Muhammad Hussein | – ( Middle East Monitor) – It has forever been the dream of almost every state, intelligence agency, empire and totalitarian regime to oversee the doings of all of their subjects, to detect any hint of dissent, to control their movements, to influence their thinking and even to peer into their […]

Featured

Taken for a Ride: Saudi-led OPEC+ snubs Biden with tiny Oil Increase, Despite Arms Sales, Fist Bump

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – At its meeting in Vienna yesterday, the enlarged “+” version of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting States (OPEC+) decided to increase output by only 100,000 barrels per day, a vanishingly small amount that will have no impact on lowering gasoline prices and which does US President Joe Biden virtually no […]

Iran

In their Hope for a ‘Middle Eastern NATO’ against Iran, Israel and the US may end up Heartbroken

Middle East Monitor

By Muhammad Hussein | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – As Arab states the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco began establishing ties with Israel over the past few years and warmed towards their old adversary, many saw it as the beginning of a new era. And in some ways, it was: […]

Featured

On Cusp of Biden visit to Saudi Arabia, GAO questions US Accounting for Civilian Harm caused in Yemen by its Weapons

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Biden is on the cusp of going off to Saudi Arabia as one part of his upcoming Middle East trip. One of the failures of Mr. Biden has been completely disengaging the US from the Saudi-led war on Yemen, which he had pledged to do. Although there has been […]

Human Rights

Absolute Monarchy United Arab Emirates: Sweeping Legal ’Reforms’ Actually Deepen Some forms of Repression

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Wide-ranging legal changes introduced by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in late 2021 fail to address the longstanding and systematic restrictions on citizens’ and residents’ civil and political rights, Human Rights Watch said today. The new laws maintain previous provisions and include new ones that pose grave threats to […]

Authoritarianism

Biden Reverses himself on Saudi “Pariah,” needing Riyadh’s Oil to Punish Putin for Ukraine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden ran on making Saudi Arabia a “pariah,” given that the CIA accused Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of authorizing the murder in 2018 of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Istanbul Saudi consulate. Biden and a bipartisan majority in the US Congress were also upset about […]

Featured

Jared Kushner to invest Saudi Funds in Israeli Tech: Is MBS sidestepping his father King Salman on Palestine?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Dion Nissenbaum and Rory Jones at the Wall Street Journal got the scoop that Affinity, Jared Kushner’s investment firm, will invest some of the $2 billion it got from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund in Israel. Kushner told the WSJ that he sees building investment and business ties between the […]

Houthi

Unlawful Killing in Yemen: Recent Saudi-UAE Attack Targeted Civilians

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Sanaa) – The Saudi and UAE-led coalition carried out three attacks in Yemen in late January 2022 in apparent violation of the laws of war that resulted in at least 80 apparently civilian deaths, including three children, and 156 injuries, including two children, Mwatana for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch […]

Displaced and Refugees

US Assistance to Saudi-Led Coalition Risks Complicity in War Crimes

Human Rights Watch

By Afrah Nasser Yemen Researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division | – ( Human Rights Watch) – The protracted conflict in Yemen has killed almost a quarter of a million people directly or indirectly due to inadequate food, health care, and infrastructure. It has included unlawful attack after unlawful attack, with homes, hospitals, schools, […]