Water in the Middle East: A Primer
Monday, October 19, 2020
Jessica Barnes Water is a prominent topic in discussions about the Middle East. Fishing at the Chebayesh marsh in Dhi Qar province, Iraq, April 2019. Thaier al-Sudani/Reuters Yet…
China Signs Series Of Deals To Develop Supergiant Oilfield In Iran
Monday, August 3, 2020
Simon Watkins Two key questions logically arise from last week’s announcement from Iran’s Petroleum Ministry that it has awarded a US$1.3 billion development deal to more than double…
Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic, the U.S. War Machine Presses On
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
Jeff Mackler That Russia paid the Taliban financial bounties to kill 18 U.S. and “coalition” soldiers in Afghanistan is in dispute to say the least. Both Democrats and…
Defying U.S., China and Iran Near Trade and Military Partnership
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Farnaz Fassihi and Steven Lee Myers Iran and China have quietly drafted a sweeping economic and security partnership that would clear the way for billions of dollars of…
Coronavirus in the Middle East: A perfect storm
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Marco Carnelos The impacts of coronavirus have been tremendous everywhere, but in the Middle East, the situation seems to be assuming the features of a perfect storm. In…
US imperialism, Zionist and the danger of war
Saturday, June 6, 2020
Mike Macnair, Moshé Machover, Yassamine Mather Crisis and need for conflict Mike Macnair What we are seeing today is a situation where the United States is lashing out…
The Beginning of the End for Oil?
Sunday, May 3, 2020
Michael T. Klare Energy analysts have long assumed that, given time, growing international concern over climate change would result in a vast restructuring of the global energy enterprise….
Essential Books: Environment and Politics in the Middle East
Thursday, April 30, 2020
While scholars of the Middle East have long been attentive to problems of land and property, resource extraction and accumulation, and the political nature of knowledge production, it…
Western “Anti-Imperialists” Silence Middle Eastern and North African Voices
Sunday, February 2, 2020
Daliah Lina “You stand with the terrorist troops. You are a jihadist.” This just covers a part of the public smearing I had to face the last couple…
The new Middle East revolutionaries share this one fatal flaw
Monday, November 4, 2019
Robert Fisk Revolutions are like electricity. An electric shock of the most unexpected kind. The victims think at first it must be a powerful wasp sting. Then they…
Yemen: The Deeper Meaning in a Lost War
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Alastair Crooke. It’s pretty clear. Saudi Arabia has lost, and, notes Bruce Riedel, “the Houthis and Iran are the strategic winners”. Saudi proxies in Aden – the seat…
Domestic Violence is Widespread in the Middle East
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Cesar Chelala. Gender violence, manifested essentially as violence against women, is one of the most significant epidemics in the Middle East today. This kind of violence occurs in…
Arms Manufacturers Tell Investors That Iran Tension Fuels Business
Saturday, June 1, 2019
Lee Fang. Defense executives from around the country crowded into Goldman Sachs’ glimmering tower in downtown Manhattan in mid-May, eager to present before a conference of bankers and financial analysts….
Trump and the Middle East: a Long Record of Personal Failure
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Melvin Goodman. Many American presidents have blundered in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, but Donald Trump’s personal involvement in the region has been particularly disastrous. President…
Threat of war in the Middle East is real
Saturday, May 11, 2019
Yassamine Mather. A common question journalists ask these days – if they are not asking about Brexit – is ‘Will there be a war against Iran?’ and, if…
What Revolutionaries Have Learned Since the Arab Spring
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Patrick Cockburn. Two very different political waves are sweeping through the Middle East and north Africa. Popular protests are overthrowing the leaders of military regimes for the first…
China’s Rise in the Middle East: Beyond Economics
Monday, March 11, 2019
Nicholas Lyall. The Obama administration’s “pivot” to Asia and away from the Middle East, followed by current President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach, has seen U.S. attention on…
The Me Too Movement in the Middle East
Thursday, February 14, 2019
by Lara al-Kateb and Omar Abbas with contributions from Selin Cagatay, Frieda Afary, Fatemeh Masjedi and socialist feminists inside Iran The Me Too movement against sexual assault and…
Saudi Crown Prince MbS Tries to Restart the Lebanese War
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Paul R Pillar. The record of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) as de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia has included a trail of regional destabilization. Foremost on…
It Is a New Era, But China’s Balancing Act Will Fail in the Middle East
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Ramzy Baroud. Although ties between Washington and Tel Aviv are stronger than ever, Israeli leaders are aware of a vastly changing political landscape. The US’ own political turmoil…
Cost of war-on-terror
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Neta Crawford, Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. Nearly half a million people have died from violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan since George W. Bush declared a “war…
Saudi plans for regional domination are not meeting with much success
Monday, November 19, 2018
Yassamine Mather. More than six weeks after the death of Jamal Khashoggi we know a lot more about his tragic plight after he entered the Saudi consulate in…
Iran: national teachers’ strike could herald new era of dissent
Sunday, November 11, 2018
Omid Shams. Iran witnessed a nationwide strike by teachers on October 14-15. Iranian social media exploded with photos and videos of the teachers’ sit-ins at elementary and high…
Why Is Israel Afraid of Khalida Jarrar?
Friday, November 9, 2018
Ramzy Baroud. When Israeli troops stormed the house of Palestinian parliamentarian and lawyer, Khalida Jarrar, on April 2, 2015, she was engrossed in her research. For months, Jarrar…
Trump Administration Ramps Up Threats Against Iran
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Marjorie Cohn. The alleged torture, murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, widely believed to have been carried out on orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, may…
Playing with Fire: Trump, the Saudi- Iranian Rivalry, and the Geopolitics of Sectarianization in the Middle East
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Danny Postel and Nader Hashemi. Sectarian conflict has been on the rise in the Middle East in recent years. From the catastrophic wars in Syria and Yemen to…
Book Review: Women in crossfire, Diaries of the Syrian Revolution
Friday, October 12, 2018
Robin Yassin-Kassab. ‘A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution’ by novelist Samar Yazbek is part journalism, part personal memoir, and all literature. It’s literature of…
Iran Truck Drivers Go On Strike, Crippling Oil Infrastructure
Friday, October 5, 2018
Tsvetana Paraskova. Oil truck drivers in Iran have started a new strike demanding improved working conditions, and the industrial action has resulted in large lines forming at gasoline…
Gaza’s economy goes into freefall: World Bank
Thursday, October 4, 2018
Jonathan Cook. Posted on ZCommunications October 2, 2018. The moment long feared is fast approaching in Gaza, according to a new report by the World Bank. After a…
Iran’s Ahvaz Attack Worsens Gulf Tensions
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Joost Hiltermann, Ali Vaez, Elizabeth Dickinson, and Daniel Scheiderman. Posted on Lobelog Sept 24, 2018. An attack on a military parade in the Iranian city of Ahvaz on…