Iran

Shahram Akbarzadeh, Deakin University | – (The Conversation) – With Iran’s firing of some 180 ballistic missiles at Israel overnight, the Middle East is again on the brink of what would be a costly, ruinous regional war. Israel and its ally, the United States, shot down most of the missiles. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu […]

Iran

Iran’s Strikes on Israel have set Conflict in the Middle East Spiraling, in rising Security Threat

The Conversation

By Javed Ali, University of Michigan | – (The Conversation) – Iran fired at least 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on Oct. 1, 2024, amplifying tensions in the Middle East that are increasingly marked by “escalation after escalation,” as United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres put it. Iran’s attacks – which Israel largely deterred with […]

Iran

Why Tehran chose to attack Israel

Ibrahim Al-Marashi

( The National ) – Iran is the first Middle Eastern state in the 21st century to strike Israel directly, having fired a massive salvo of ballistic missiles from its territory – not once, but twice – in just one year. But it is not the first Middle Eastern state ever to have done so. […]

Hizbullah

Biden’s Israel Policy Has Led Us to the Brink of War on Iran

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink ) – On October 1, Iran fired about 180 missiles at Israel in response to Israel’s recent assassinations of leaders of its Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), Hezbollah and Hamas. There are conflicting reports about how many of the missiles struck their targets and if there were any deaths. But Israel is now considering a counterattack that could […]

China

At UN, China slams US Sanctions on Iran, Accuses Israel of ‘Indiscriminate attacks on Civilians’

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, during his first appearance at the annual UN General Assembly meeting, met on the margins of the conference with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. He elicited from the Chinese one of the strongest statements of Chinese support we have seen. According to the UAE’s al-Khaleej, Wang […]

Featured

Woman, Life, Freedom: Rachel, Shireen, Mahsa and Ayşenur

Fariba Amini

Newark, Del. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – A few days before the invasion of Iraq by American forces under G.W. Bush, on March 16, 2003, a young woman from Seattle, Washington, who had gone to Rafah, in Gaza to help Palestinians halt the demolition of homes died under the bulldozer of the Israeli army. […]

Iran

Is it time to retire the Phrase ‘Arab-Israeli Conflict?’ Hostilities now extend beyond those Boundaries

The Conversation

By Nader Habibi, Brandeis University | – (The Conversation) – The current phase of fighting in the Middle East began almost a year ago, with the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas and the subsequent pummeling of Gaza by Israel. But to many academics, foreign policy experts and international observers, what is taking place is […]

Climate Crisis

Is Climate Change Sucking the Caspian Sea Dry?

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Tarique Niazi ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Azerbaijan is making the most of its hosting of the UN climate summit (COP29) in November this year. Its president, Ilham Aliyev, has been on a whirlwind tour of the world to court major nations for a climate finance pact that will feature Baku’s initiative […]

Iran

Is Iran’s anti-Israel and -American Rhetoric all Bark and no Bite?

Shahram Akbarzadeh

(The Conversation) – On August 27, Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, told the newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and his cabinet that talking to the enemy may be useful. In a thinly veiled reference to Iran’s engagement with the international community – and specifically the United States – Khamenei […]