Middle East

By Kamal al-Ayash | Ramadi | ( Niqash.org) | – – Locals are struggling to get rid of the explosive booby-traps the Islamic State left as they withdrew from Ramadi. For one group of daring locals, defusing the bombs has become a lucrative new job opportunity. In the central Iraqi city of Ramadi, it is […]

Featured

Why the Boeing & Airbus Sales to Iran are a Big Effing Deal

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the real power center for the American government, has issued licenses to Airbus and Boeing allowing them to sell commercial airliners to Iran. President Obama ordered the licenses, defying the Republican-controlled Congress, which doesn’t want […]

Iran

Montazeri recording surfaces condemning mass killings that Haunt Iran’s Revolution

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari | ( RFE/RL) | – – Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, once in line to become Iran’s supreme leader, has come back from the grave to haunt the Islamic establishment that punished him for openly criticizing the regime’s mass killing of political opponents in the late 1980s. The release of an audio […]

Israel/ Palestine

US College Course on Palestine Reinstated after Cancellation under pressure from Israel Lobbies

contributors

By IMEMC | – – University of California, Berkeley, has reinstated a course on Palestine that was cancelled under pressure from pro-Israel groups, according to a press release. Palestine Legal said, according to WAFA, that the university reinstated the student-led course titled “Palestine: A Settler-Colonial Analysis”, following an outcry from students and faculty describing the […]

Climate Change

Welcome to Masdar City: the ultimate experiment in sustainable urban living

contributors

By Susan Lee | (The Conversation) | – – Ten years ago in the United Arab Emirates, a new settlement was started from scratch, with the aim of becoming “the world’s most sustainable city”. Masdar City was designed to be zero-carbon and zero-waste, home to a population of 40,000 people, with an additional 50,000 commuters, […]

Featured

Obama: End terrorism like that in New York by Destroying ISIL in Mosul, Iraq

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – President Obama met yesterday with Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi and discussed the coming campaign to take the northern Iraqi city of Mosul away from Daesh, entirely destroying the terrorist organization’s territorial power in Iraq. Obama expects the campaign to be launched before the end of […]

Russia

Syria: Are Russo-Iranian and US-Saudi interests converging enough for a Ceasefire?

contributors

By Mohammed Nuruzzaman | (Informed Comment) The Syrian civil war is now in its sixth year, with occasional ceasefire deals made and violated by the warring parties being a cyclical process. The latest ceasefire agreement brokered by the U.S. and Russia, which came into effect on September 12, is standing on shaky grounds. The U.S.-led […]

Israel/ Palestine

Can Palestinians fight their Displacement with Oral History?

contributors

By Thayer Hastings | (Al-Shabaka) | Ma’an News Agency | – – Oral history has a long precedent in Arab and Palestinian culture that stems from a broader oral tradition. In the years immediately following the Nakba of 1948, the Arab tradition of the hakawati (storyteller) was used, according to Nur Masalha, to shore up […]

Featured

In Massive Intel Error, US Kills 80 Syrian Troops, Helps ISIL Advance

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In a massive intelligence failure, the US Air Force hit a Syrian military installation in Deir al-Zor that it thought was Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). But it turned out to be the Syrian Arab Army position at Deir al-Zor military airport. The strike killed 80 soldiers and […]