By Javed Ali, University of Michigan | – For decades, Iran and Israel have been engaged in a “shadow war.” Falling short of direct military confrontation, this conflict has been characterized by war through other means – through proxies, cyber attacks, economic sanctions and fiery rhetoric. Events over the last few weeks in the Middle […]
- Africa (237)
- Animals (1)
- Asia (1,219)
- Australasia (8)
- Australia (25)
- Authoritarianism (382)
- Canada (6)
- Cats (1)
- Celtic Religion (1)
- Culture (515)
- Dehydration (1)
- Democracy (323)
- Dissent (418)
- Ecology (1)
- Economy (1,019)
- Agriculture (3)
- Banking (67)
- Carbon Footprint (6)
- Corporations (50)
- Cryptocurrency (2)
- Debt (21)
- Democratic Socialism (20)
- Demographic Decline (1)
- Development (26)
- Employment (118)
- Food Insecurity (21)
- Homelessness (15)
- Industry (5)
- Inequality (421)
- Inflation (5)
- infrastructure (10)
- Investment (92)
- Market Crash (10)
- Middle Class (61)
- Monopolies (8)
- Neoliberalism (200)
- Plutocracy (612)
- Poverty (204)
- Regulation (2)
- Sanctions (4)
- Taxes (37)
- Technology (3)
- Trade (113)
- Weapons sales (6)
- Education (132)
- Elderly (3)
- Electricity Cost (2)
- Energy (1,695)
- Batteries (49)
- Coal (137)
- Fossil Fuels (317)
- Fracking (50)
- Geothermal (7)
- Green ammonia (5)
- Green Energy (409)
- Green Hydrogen (8)
- Heat Pumps (5)
- Hydroelectric (14)
- Natural Gas (107)
- Nuclear Energy (156)
- Petroleum (297)
- Power Grid (12)
- Pumped Hydro (6)
- Solar Energy (398)
- Tar Sands (13)
- Wave Energy (9)
- wind energy (333)
- Environment (2,592)
- Climate Change (1,537)
- Acidification of Oceans (54)
- Agriculture (25)
- Biodiversity (12)
- Climate Refugees (2)
- CO2 (114)
- Dehydration (5)
- Denialism (145)
- Desalinization (4)
- Desertification (158)
- Divestment (2)
- Dust Storms (6)
- Environmental Investment (1)
- Extreme Weather (294)
- Flooding (133)
- Food Supply (2)
- Forests (17)
- Green New Deal (39)
- Greenwashing (3)
- Mass Extinction (61)
- Methane (20)
- Net Carbon Zerio (8)
- Nitrous Oxide (2)
- Rainforests (19)
- Rivers (11)
- Sea Level (333)
- Soil Carbon Release (14)
- Super Storms (250)
- wildfires (231)
- Wood Buildings (1)
- Climate Crisis (1,243)
- Drought (287)
- Ecology (10)
- Environmentalism (392)
- Green Transportation (249)
- Ice Melt (132)
- Invasive Species (2)
- Islands (1)
- Oceans (100)
- Oil Spills (7)
- Pollution (226)
- Water (92)
- wildlife (19)
- Climate Change (1,537)
- Europe (1,333)
- Featured (3,870)
- fiction (5)
- Food (13)
- G20 (1)
- Guns (9)
- Health (660)
- History (342)
- Human Rights (1,395)
- Apartheid (256)
- censorship (283)
- Death Penalty (30)
- Disappeared (3)
- Displaced and Refugees (556)
- Food Insecurity (14)
- Gay rights (29)
- Genocide (29)
- Human Rights Watch (90)
- Migrants (4)
- Slavery and Trafficking (16)
- Torture (96)
- Trans Rights (3)
- Transgender Rights (4)
- Unlawful Imprisonment (99)
- Unlwful Killing (75)
- War Crimes (369)
- War Rape (7)
- Immigration (20)
- International (790)
- Islamophobia (374)
- Juan Cole (270)
- Latin America (99)
- Latinos (4)
- leisure (21)
- media (467)
- Middle East (9,269)
- Arab World (5,144)
- Iran (1,278)
- Israel (873)
- Israel/ Palestine (3,067)
- Israel/Palestine (8)
- Kurds (289)
- Turkey (575)
- Turkiye (101)
- military (123)
- Modernism (3)
- nationalism (116)
- NATO (36)
- Natural Disasters (13)
- Neocolonialism (1)
- nuclear weapons (103)
- Patriarchy (10)
- Peace (136)
- Persian mythology (1)
- Pete Buttigieg (1)
- Planetary Exploration (1)
- Popular Culture (24)
- Poverty (12)
- privacy (21)
- racism (462)
- Rape (8)
- religion (1,465)
- Rights (139)
- robots (3)
- Romance (1)
- science (148)
- Secular (West) (9)
- Secularism (30)
- Sexual Assault (2)
- South Pacific (2)
- Spirituality (22)
- Statelessness (15)
- Stranded Assets (1)
- Surveillance (278)
- Terrorism (1,091)
- Tolerance (6)
- Uncategorized (8,075)
- United Nations (135)
- Urbanization (4)
- US Foreign Policy (1,277)
- US politics (5,229)
- Anti-War Movement (12)
- Campaign Finance (31)
- Censors (22)
- Central Intelligence Agency (63)
- Charity (1)
- Civil Rights (96)
- Congress (77)
- Conspiracy Theories (23)
- Constitution (397)
- Courts (12)
- crime (12)
- Democratic Party (941)
- Democratic Socialists of America (22)
- Domestic Terrorism (20)
- Drone Warfare (27)
- Espionage (124)
- Ethnicities (380)
- Far Right (386)
- FBI (47)
- Foreign Policy (204)
- Gay Rights (17)
- Guns (94)
- Immigration (236)
- Israel Lobbies (123)
- Marijuana (4)
- Militarization (271)
- National Security State (471)
- Native Americans (40)
- Nuclear arsenal (7)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (557)
- Police (43)
- prison reform (9)
- Private Prisons (2)
- Progressive Politics (12)
- Puerto Rico (30)
- Religious Right (15)
- Reproductive Choice (66)
- Republican Party (2,914)
- Supreme Court (125)
- Voter suppression (35)
- Whistleblowers (5)
- Xenophobia (9)
- Veterans (35)
- Voting Rights (16)
- War (498)
- White Supremacists (225)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (550)
- workers (231)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (208)
Iran
Netanyahu, Empowered by Biden’s Grant of Impunity, baits Iran into his genocidal Gaza War
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Despite all the hype about Iran’s largely symbolic barrage of over 200 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles, unleashed on the thinly populated Negev Desert (where it was mainly Palestinian Bedouins who were put in danger), the military significance of this action was minimal. An Israeli base was hit at […]
The Origins of the West’s Iran Crisis: Oil, Autocracy and Coup
Review of David S. Painter and Gregory Brew, The Struggle for Iran: Oil, Autocracy, and the Cold War, 1951–1954. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2023. Munich (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The figure of Mohammad Mosaddeq, Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953, is an uncomfortable one for both sides […]
With Its Deterrence Strategy Weakened, Iran Faces Pressure To Hit Israel
By Kian Sharifi | – ( Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty ) – Iran’s strategy of deterrence against Israel has suffered greatly since the outbreak of the Gaza war — particularly after the brazen attack on its consulate in the Syrian capital on April 1. Eighteen members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), including […]
Iran-US secret Backchannel Talks Suggest that for Both Sides Pragmatism beats Ideology
By Shabnam Holliday, University of Plymouth | – (The Conversation) – Recent revelations that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the US have held secret talks as a way of resolving months of attacks by Tehran-backed Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea have raised eyebrows. Surely the two countries have been implacable foes […]
Was Israel’s Strike on Iranian Embassy in Damascus an attempt to draw the US into the War?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel’s airstrikes Monday on the Iranian embassy in Damascus, which killed a senior general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and six other Iranian military advisers, as well as Syrians, is a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Israel itself has squawked when its embassies and embassy personnel […]
Naked Hypocrisy: The US once cited UNSC Resolutions to Invade Iraq, now calls Gaza Ceasefire Demand “Non-Binding”
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Tuesday characterized the United Nations Security Council resolution 2728 demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza conflict as “non-binding,” a phrase also used by US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. The US was rebuked by China, according to Akmal Dawi at VOA: “‘Security […]
The Music of the late Iranian Singer Faramarz Aslani, Forced into Exile by a Puritan Revolution
Newark, Del. (Special to Informed Comment) – Amidst war and genocide in Ukraine and in Gaza, a new spring came along. For millions of Persian-speaking people, March 19 marked the beginning of Nowruz or new day this year. A holiday with Zoroastrian roots, Nowruz is celebrated in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and parts of India and […]
The Middle East Ranks at the Bottom of Gallup’s Happiness Index, except for Rich Oil States; is the US to Blame?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The annual Gallup report on happiness by country came out this week. It is based on a three-year average of polling. What struck me in their report is how unhappy the Middle East is. The only Middle Eastern country in the top twenty is Kuwait (for the first time in […]