Middle East

VICE News | – “In early March, while the world was watching Iraqi government forces advance on the Islamic State (IS) in Tikrit, IS was launching a series of assaults on what little remains of the Government-held parts of the provincial capital, Ramadi, which has been under siege for over a year. On the morning […]

Featured

Israel’s Netanyahu jumps Shark with “Iran-Lausanne-Yemen” axis barb

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, no longer allowed to sit at the adult table because of his past food fights, has been reduced, as Haaretz observed, to whining from the sidelines. Now he is complaining about an “Iran-Lausanne-Yemen” axis. The negotiations between Iran and the P5 + 1 (the […]

Iraq

US Air Strikes Split Iraq Coalition aiming to Take Tikrit

contributors

By Paul Rogers | (The Conversation) – So it has begun – the US is bombing Tikrit, once a stronghold of Saddam Hussein’s regime and now held by Islamic State militants. Strategically and symbolically important, Tikrit has been a fierce battleground for weeks, as Iraqi government troops and Shia militias have fought fierce street battles […]

Apartheid

Palestinians fear their land will be taken by rising Israeli right

contributors

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Palestinians are increasingly anxious for the future and are hesitant on a return to negotiations with Israel in the wake of the success of right-wing parties in Israel’s recent elections, a public opinion survey released Tuesday showed. Around 47 percent of respondents across the West Bank and Gaza said that in the […]

Displaced and Refugees

Yemen: Saudi-Led Airstrikes Take Civilian Toll

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – (Beirut) – The Saudi Arabia-led coalition of Arab countries that conducted airstrikes in Yemen on March 26 and 27, 2015, killed at least 11 and possibly as many as 34 civilians during the first day of bombings in Sanaa, the capital, Human Rights Watch said today. The 11 dead included […]

al-Qaeda

A Game-Changer in Syrian War? al-Qaeda-led Factions take Idlib

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The provincial capital Idlib, a city of 165,000 in the old days and administrative center of the northwestern Idlib province, appears to have fallen completely to a Muslim fundamentalist coalition spearheaded by Ahrar al-Sham (Free Men of Syria) and the al-Qaeda affiliate, the Support Front (Jabhat al-Nusra). Most […]

Apartheid

French Firm Pulls Out of Jerusalem Cable Car Project

contributors

by IMEMC News | – France-based utility giant Suez Environnement said Wednesday that, because of political sensitivities, it has decided not to take part in a cable car project linking West Jerusalem to the annexed Eastern sector. The project, run by the Jerusalem city council, has stoked controversy over the Israeli cable car’s planned route, […]

Houthi

Who Has A Stake In Yemen Fight?

contributors

By Michael Scollon | (RFE/RL) – Yemen is at the center of a proxy war between regional heavyweights Iran and Saudi Arabia. It's the source of fears of a broader Sunni-Shi'ite conflict. And it has implications far beyond its borders. Here is a look at the stakeholders in the fight. The Playing Field […]

Featured

Lebanon’s Shiite Hizbullah slams Saudi attack on Yemen

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Hasan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hizbullah, Lebanese Shiite party-militia, weighed in on Friday on the Saudi intervention in Yemen. The Saudis put together a Sunni coalition against the Shiite Houthis and have bombed Zaidi Shiite population centers like Sa’adeh. I discussed their motives in my just-published piece in […]