Yemen

By Mahad Darar, Colorado State University | – Yemen’s Houthi movement launched missiles and drones at Israel on Oct. 31, 2023 – provoking fears of a dangerous escalation of the Middle East conflict. With the militia – which controls part of the Arabian Peninsula state – vowing further attacks, Israel countered by sending missile boats […]

Ethiopia

Mass Killings of Ethiopian Migrants By Saudi Arabia at Yemen Border May Amount to Crimes Against Humanity

Human Rights Watch

Saudi border guards have killed at least hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023. Saudi officials are killing hundreds of women and children out of view of the rest of the world while they spend billions on sports-washing to try to improve […]

Displaced and Refugees

Headlines and Front Lines: How US News Coverage of Wars in Yemen and Ukraine reveals a Bias in Recording Civilian Harm

The Conversation

By Esther Brito Ruiz, American University School of International Service and Jeff Bachman, American University School of International Service | – (The Conversation) – War entails suffering. How and how often that suffering is reported on in the U.S., however, is not evenhanded. Take, for example, the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen in March 2015 and […]

al-Qaeda

When Foreign Policy Elites Manipulate the Public into War, the First Amendment is the First Casualty

Ali Abootalebi

Eau Claire, WI (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – United States presidents have repeatedly waged wars with tacit congressional approval and distorted narratives at the expense of citizens’ political participation in the political process and to the detriment of their first amendment rights. the seemingly popular support for such interventions is constructed and deprives millions […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change: Severe flooding in Yemen has Affected over 165 000 people, Worsening the displacement Crisis

The Watchers

( The Watchers ) – More than 165 000 people across more than 70 districts of Yemen were impacted by widespread flooding over the past couple of months, leading to loss of life and significant damage to shelters, crops, and infrastructure. The already vulnerable internally displaced persons (IDP) find themselves further distressed as their shelters […]

Featured

The Limits of Saudi Normalization with Israel

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Biden administration is devoting what energy the State Department has aside from the effort to defend Ukraine to achieving diplomatic normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The premise for this entry of the Saudis into the Abraham Accords is that it would seek an alliance with Israel against Iran. […]

China

China and the Axis of the Sanctioned: How America’s Divide-and-Rule Strategy in the Middle East Backfired

Juan Cole

( Tomdispatch.com) – A photo Beijing released on March 6th of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s foreign minister Wang Yi* delivered a seismic shock in Washington. There he was, standing between Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, and Saudi National Security Adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban. They were awkwardly shaking hands on an […]

China

Can China broker Peace in Yemen – and further Beijing’s Middle East Strategy in the Process?

The Conversation

By Mahad Darar, Colorado State University | – After nearly a decade of grinding conflict, Yemen looks to be inching toward a peace deal. Talks between the Houthi movement controlling much of the country’s north and Saudi Arabia, the regional power backing an anti-Houthi coalition in the war, are ongoing and being encouraged by international […]

China

Peace may finally be returning to Yemen, but can a fractured Nation be put back Together?

The Conversation

By Leena Adel, Curtin University and Ben Rich, Curtin University | – Last month, China brokered a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, a landmark deal that restored full diplomatic ties between the two bitter rivals. There was hope the detente could also bring an end to one of the world’s longest-running – and virtually […]