Middle East

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Babak Dehghanpisheh at Reuters reports that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced on Thursday that the coronavirus Covid-19 has spread to nearly all of the 31 provinces of the huge country (Iran is as big geographically as Spain, France and Germany combined, and its population rivals that of Germany at 81 […]

Iraq

The Iraqi Youth Uprising is a New Kind of Politics, but the Elites, US, don’t Get It

Middle East Monitor

By Haifa Zangana | – ( Middle East Monitor) – Muhammad Allawi has recently been appointed as Prime Minister of the Iraqi transitional government, since when the auction for government positions has quickened; in this it is no different to previous governments. They are the same governments that the youth rose up against in October […]

Featured

Netanyahu, failing to get a majority for the third time, Lashes out at Foes as “Arab Terrorists” and Jewish Terrorist-Lovers

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Arab48, a Palestinian-Israeli news site, reports that caretaker Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu accused the “Joint List” made up of 15 Palestinian-Israelis elected to parliament of being “terrorists” and put them out of consideration in the formation of a government. A minimum of 61 seats is needed to form a […]

Iran

The Impossible Presidency: Rouhani Caught in Cross-hairs of Trump, Iranian Hardliners and Public Apathy

Shahram Akbarzadeh

Melbourne (Special to Informed Comment) – For the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran the voter turn-out at the parliamentary elections has fallen below the psychological threshold of 50%. According to the Interior Ministry in charge of administering the elections, the national participation rate was 42.5%. In the capital city […]

Assyrians

Trump Administration Says Iraq is Dangerous for Christians, until it Wants to Deport Them

ProPublica

By Yeganeh Torbati | – To deport Iraqi Christians, Trump’s immigration officials rely on testimony saying they won’t be at particular risk. But to justify funding and attention, officials elsewhere in the administration say the Christians face grave danger. (ProPublica) – Even as U.S. immigration officials have pushed to deport hundreds of Iraqi Christians over […]

Israel/ Palestine

Without the Right of Citizenship in a State, Palestinians are Doomed To Poverty and Unsustainability

Ramona Wadi

(Middle East Monitor) – The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) remains in perpetual financial crisis. Spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna has warned that apart from a possible cessation of services by May, there are no funds for emergency programmes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Only $125 million has been […]

Featured

“The Triumph of Apartheid:” Did the Trump/Kushner Plan help Israel’s Netanyahu return to Power?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Three Israeli television news channels’ exit polls suggest that indicted prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s far-right racist Likud Party fell just short of a majority in Israel’s third parliamentary election in a year. The Likud, founded in the age of supremacist racialist parties of the 1930s and 1940s, was projected to […]

Pentagon

Assad and Putin have Waged Total Air War on Idlib’s Civilians, Learning from US Bombing of Iraq

Open Democracy

Paul Rogers | – ( OpenDemocracy.net) – The tactics of Syrian and Russian forces are unforgiveable – but scarcely different to what the US and its allies were doing just a few years ago. Around the world, people are watching the suffering of the people of Idlib with pity; their governments are alarmed at the […]

Displaced and Refugees

Top 5 Ways Syria is the Worst Humanitarian Crisis of the 21st Century

The Conversation

By Shelley Inglis | – Remember former President Barack Obama’s infamous red line speech in 2012? In that speech, the president made it clear that the U.S. would not stand for the use of chemical or biological weapons by President Bashar al-Assad against opposition forces in Syria. But, despite subsequent evidence of the use of […]