Middle East

Tehran (AFP) Iranian President Hassan Rouhani rejected Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s resignation on Wednesday, saying the departure of the public face of the Islamic republic’s detente with the West would be against its best interests. Zarif’s abrupt announcement on Instagram late on Monday that he was quitting had sparked rumours of mass resignations in […]

Featured

A Victim of Trump? Iran’s Centrist Foreign Minister Mysteriously Forced Out

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif resigned via Instagram on Monday, apologizing for his inability to continue in office and for any shortcomings in his past service to the nation. A member of parliament said that Zarif had submitted letters of resignation to President Hassan Rouhani on several occasions but […]

nuclear weapons

Why Proposal to Sell Saudis Nuclear Technology without Safeguards is Terrifying

The Conversation

By Chen Kane | – According to a congressional report, a group that includes former senior U.S. government officials is lobbying to sell nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia. As an expert focusing on the Middle East and the spread of nuclear weapons, I believe these efforts raise important legal, economic and strategic concerns. It […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli Bulldozers uproot 300 Palestinian-Owned Trees near Jenin

Maan News Agency

JENIN (Ma’an) — Israeli bulldozers razed dozens of dunams and uprooted hundreds of Palestinian-owned trees, on Monday afternoon, on lands belonging to residents from the Bartaa village, southwest of the northern occupied West Bank district of Jenin. According to local sources, Israeli forces along with bulldozers stormed the area and began to raze about 28 […]

Iran

Khamenei hails Assad in Tehran as Key to “Resistance” to US

AFP

Tehran (AFP) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Monday on his first visit to the Islamic republic since the start of the Syrian conflict. During the meeting, Assad expressed his gratitude to Iran for all that it has done for Syria during the conflict, according to the Syrian presidency’s […]

Middle East

With Trump AWOL, Europe Woos Mideast, fearing Russian & Chinese Dominance

AFP

By Lachlan Carmichael and Menna Zaki in Cairo | – Sharm el Sheikh (AFP) – European and Arab leaders on Sunday opened their first summit in a bid to bolster cooperation as EU President Donald Tusk said neighbours “should not leave it to powers far from our region”, alluding to China and Russia. Host Egyptian […]

Israel/ Palestine

A Teenage War Resister in Israel: An Antiwar Story from the Embattled Middle East

Tomdispatch

By Rory Fanning | – (Tomdispatch.com) – Hilel Garmi’s phone is going straight to voicemail and all I’m hoping is that he’s not back in prison. I’ll soon learn that he is. Prison 6 is a military prison. It’s situated in the Israeli coastal town of Atlit, a short walk from the Mediterranean Sea and […]

Featured

Can AIPAC sell Netanyahu’s Kahanist Terrorists to Middle America?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – American television news, having fainted with the vapors at the very idea that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) might openly say that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a lobby for Israel that directs money to the campaigns of American politicians, has abruptly fallen silent on the issue of Israel’s […]

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders returns Palestine to the Center of Political Debate in the US

Middle East Monitor

By Ray Hanania | – Last month, leading Israeli journalist Tal Schneider told a teleconference hosted by Americans for Peace Now that the issue of the occupation and Palestinian rights has almost vanished from the Israeli political conversation. In previous years, it loomed heavy over nearly every election campaign. The shift in Israeli politics has […]