Middle East

The Ever Given’s Blockage of the Suez Canal and World Trade showed the Downsides of Monopoly Capitalism

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – News media, maritime experts, and a curious public could hardly take their eyes off the Ever Given, the mega cargo ship as long as the Empire State Building is tall. Viewers were stunned to see the ship swung sideways to the canal and thus blocking transit in […]

Egypt

Egyptian Foreign policy under Sisi: diminishing independence in the service of dictatorship

Ebrahim Deen

Johannesburg (Special to Informed Comment) – Egyptian foreign policy under the tutelage of Egyptian president Abdul Fattah El-Sisi has seen the country lose much of its independence in an attempt to secure gulf aid and in the service of combating the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. In addition, the country’s myriad domestic challenges has seen its influence […]

Featured

Iraq Announces end of US Combat Mission in Iraq, further reduction in 2,500 Troops now There

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Iraqi News Agency reports that Qasim al-Araji, Iraq’s National Security Adviser, said on Wednesday that his country had reached an agreement with Washington specifying that there would be no foreign military bases in Iraq. During a press conference alongside foreign minister Fuad Hussein, al-Araji added that the Biden administration […]

Books

Mrs. Hemingway, Israel, and the Palestinians

Shalom Goldman

Middlebury, Vt. (Special to Informed Comment) – In the current PBS series on Ernest Hemingway’s life and work, Martha Gellhorn, the journalist and novelist who was the third of Hemingway’ four wives, is sympathetically and vividly featured. But one important, perhaps defining, aspect of her life is glossed over. Similarly, in the 2012 HBO movie […]

Featured

How to understand Indirect US-Iran Nuclear Talks at Vienna: Iran wants US to get its Knee off Tehran’s Neck, Chauvin style, First

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The current signatories to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (Joint Plan of Comprehensive Action or JCPOA) met in Vienna Tuesday with Iran. The United States delegation, led by Robert Malley, met on the sidelines with Deputy Secretary-General European Union Enrique Mora, who engaged in shuttle diplomacy between Iran and the […]

Israel/ Palestine

The Biden administration talks Equality and 2 States, but are Occupied Palestinians any Less Oppressed?

Ramona Wadi

( Middle East Monitor ) – US President Joe Biden may be returning the country to the two-state paradigm, but the inequalities between Israelis and Palestinians are becoming more prominent with each statement uttered by officials. When the US speaks of the two-state compromise, it is doing so with complete recognition of the fact that […]

China

With Huge Iran Deal, China Hopes Deep Pockets Further Boost Influence In Middle East

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Reid Standish | – Beijing has inked a sweeping 25-year investment deal with Iran that could see China’s economic, political, and military influence there and across the Middle East expand. ( RFE/RL) – China and Iran signed the expansive deal during a ceremony in Tehran on March 27 between their respective foreign ministers, Mohammad […]

Featured

In Historical Irony, Israel can only have a Government with Palestinian-Israeli (and maybe Muslim Brotherhood) Support

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a great historical irony, the immediate future of Israeli politics may depend on the Israeli branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. After the recent Israeli election, the fourth in less than two years, long-serving prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu once again appears to be falling short of attracting 61 members of […]

European Union

Over objections of Dem Hawks, Biden agrees to indirect Talks with Iran in Vienna to return to the 2015 Nuclear Deal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – AFP reports that an arrangement was reached at Friday’s teleconference in Vienna between the current signatories to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to mediate indirect talks between Iran and the United States next week. State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the US had agreed to participate in the discussions […]