Middle East

Aljazeera reports that by Wednesday morning pro-Qaddafi forces had retaken Gharyan and Sabratha in the northwest, and had tried and failed to take the oil town of Brega in the east. Qaddafi’s jets also bombed arms depots in rebel-held Ajdabiya. Pro-Qaddafi forces had secured the country’s Western border with Tunisia on Tuesday and then attacked […]

Egypt

Kusha: Iran vs. Egypt: Qualitative Differences in Capabilities

Juan Cole

Kusha Sefat writes in a guest editorial for Informed Comment: In delineating the differences and similarities between the recent Egyptian uprising and the one that resulted from the disputed presidential election in Iran, Pouya Alimagham points to an interesting and important point. The Egyptian regime, while enjoying broad international support, fell in just 18 days. […]

Iraq

The World Oil Politics of the Libyan Revolt

Juan Cole

The question of what comes after Qaddafi became more complicated on Sunday, as rival claims to forming a provisional liberated government emerged. Former Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil had announced on Saturday from Benghazi that he would head an interim government. But on Sunday human rights attorney Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga said from Benghazi that an interim government […]

Saudi Arabia

Rudolph: Can You Pass The Saudi Arabia Quiz?

Juan Cole

Jeffrey Rudolph writes in a guest column for Informed Comment Saudi Arabia, an Islamic absolute monarchy, has enjoyed extremely close relations with the United States, a constitutional republic. This relationship highlights the gross hypocrisy of US foreign policy: fundamentalism and dictatorship in the Arab world is only condemned when it comes garbed in anti-Americanism. In […]

Tunisia

Top Pieces of Unfinished Business in the Mideast

Juan Cole

1. Some 6000 protesters marched in Jordan on Friday. They said they wanted to transform the Jordanian monarchy into a European-style, constitutional monarchy and to return to an unamended 1952 constitution. 2. Some 100,000 Tunisians came out into the streets of Tunis on Friday to demand the resignation of caretaker prime minister Mohamed Ghannouchi. The […]

Afghanistan

Clueless in the District of Columbia (Engelhardt)

Juan Cole

I was thinking that in light of the labor and youth revolutions of 2011, Washington’s focus on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the past two decades seems increasingly odd, like a set of fixations. They originated in the Cold War and in a frantic attempt to keep petroleum inexpensive so that alternative energy did […]

Egypt

Alimagham: What Egypt & Tunisia Tell us About Iran

Juan Cole

Pouya Alimagham writes in a guest column for Informed Comment What the Egyptian and Tunisian Revolutions Tell Us about Iran There has been much debate about whether the recent revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, especially in the latter, will produce a system resembling that of the Islamic Republic in Iran, which was born of revolution […]

Yemen

Days of Rage in Libya, Yemen and Bahrain

Juan Cole

ITN has video on Friday’s dramatic protests in Libya, Yemen and Bahrain (for the latter scroll down). Some 80 protesters have been killed in the past three days in Libya, and 35 were killed in Benghazi on Friday evening alone. They are challenging the rule of dictator Muammar Qadhafi. Some crowds are pulling down statues […]

Iraq

Iraq Roiled by Protests, 2 Killed in Sulaimaniya

Juan Cole

What I can’t understand is, if the American Right Wing were correct that George W. Bush was ‘right’ in trying to kick start democracy in the Middle East by invading and occupying it, then why would it be necessary for people to demonstrate and burn government buildings in… Iraq? And why have 5 people been […]