US Foreign Policy

Arabic Press: Saudi Arabia breaking off Talks with Israel out of Despair that Far Right Gov’t will make any concessions to Palestinians

Post-script: Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman denied this report 4 days after it appeared and maintained that the negotiations with Israel are continuing, with the two sides getting closer. Either the Israeli source was misinformed or was leaking to put pressure on the Crown Prince; if the latter it appears to have succeeded. Ann Arbor […]

Arab World

Expansion of BRICS, the anti-G7, in the Mideast: Is the Oil Gulf no Longer Pax Americana?

Hamdullah Baycar

Exeter (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – BRICS, a group of five developing countries that include China, Russia, and India, has invited another six countries to join the bloc, making the group 11 if all accept the invitation. Among 40 interested states in membership, of which 22 had already officially asked for admission, BRICS leaders […]

BRICS

As US drags out Israel Normalization Deal with Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Drifts toward China

Nick Mehling

Cairo (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – With the announcement of the expansion of the BRICS bloc many were surprised to see traditional US allies like Saudi Arabia and the UAE inducted as new members. Pundits were quick to exclaim the monumental shift, heralding the move as Saudi Arabia charting an independent path and the […]

China

The South China Sea’s Resource Wars and Environmental Collapse

Tomdispatch

By Joshua Frank ( Tomdispatch.com) – It’s an ocean of conflict and ecological decline. Despite its vast size — 1.3 million square miles — the South China Sea has become a microcosm of the geopolitical tensions between East and West, where territorial struggles over abundant natural resources may one day lead to environmental collapse. While […]

Climate Crisis

Biden in Hanoi: Climate Change Exceeding 1.5° C. is more of an Existential Threat than even Nuclear War

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – As I pointed out on Sunday, the Big Oil and Big Coal countries in the G20 — Russia, Saudi Arabia, India and China — prevented the New Delhi summit’s joint communique from making any specific commitments to reduce carbon pollution. At his news conference in Hanoi, President Biden was pressed […]

China

China’s Coup: Saudi and Iranian Ambassadors arrive at Reopened Embassies, Stress Bilateral Relations, Regional Development

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Aljazeera reports that on Tuesday, the Saudi ambassador to Iran and the Iranian ambassador to Saudi Arabia both took up their duties at the two countries’ embassies. The restoration of full diplomatic relations, which had been disrupted in 2016, was brokered earlier this year by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Saudi […]

Drone Warfare

The Rules of Engagement of Violent Islamophobia: 22 Years of Drone Warfare and No End in Sight

Tomdispatch

By Maha Hilal | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – “I no longer love blue skies. In fact, I now prefer gray skies. The drones do not fly when the skies are gray.” That’s what a young Pakistani boy named Zubair told members of Congress at a hearing on drones in October 2013. That hearing was during […]

Israel

The US tried to Negotiate Libya-Israel Ties with Elites, but then the Libyan People said ‘No!’

Middle East Monitor

by Muhammad Hussein alhussein1001 ( Middle East Monitor) – As protests erupted throughout the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and other cities in the country in response to the Foreign Minister’s secret meeting with her Israeli counterpart last week, it served as a stark reminder of the rampant disconnect between the country’s political leaderships and the general […]

Israel

Dismissal of “Scapegoat” Libyan Foreign Minister for Meeting with Israel shows Limits of US “Abraham Accords”

Gilbert Achcar

The United States pressured Libya to meet with Israel in order to prepare the way for recognizing it and joining the Abraham Accords. After the secret meeting of Libyan Foreign Minister Najla El-Mangoush in Rome with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen last week, Cohen publicly announced the meeting. A firestorm of protest followed, as a […]