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Archives: Middle East

Freeing Fayza: A Journey to War-Torn Iraq to Rescue a Yazidi ISIL Slave Girl

By: Brian Glyn Williams and Christopher Natola | (Informed Comment) | - - It began with an electrifying text message from a Yazidi member of a network dedicated to freeing Yazidis (an…

Demand-Side Slavery, Libyan Instability and European Crime Networks

Neil Thompson | (Informed Comment) | - - After several years in which refugees and migration have featured heavily in the Western media narrative, a disturbing correlation between human trafficking and conflict…

Syria: Russians alarmed, Washington Befuddled, by White House threats

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The unusual statement from the "White House" on Monday saying that there were indications that the Syrian regime was preparing to use poison…

Turkey abandons High Tech Future by Banning Teaching of Evolution

By James Williams | (The Conversation) | - - In the US there have been many attempts to expunge evolution from the school curriculm or demand that creationism – the idea that…

Trump May Already Be Blundering into the Next Middle East War

By Jim Lobe & Giulia McDonnell Nieto Del Rio | ( FPIF) | First published in Lobelog | - - The possibilities for catastrophic miscalculation are skyrocketing in the Middle East, and…

How Saudi blackmailed the UN to avoid Yemen War Human Rights Slam

By Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | - - UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - When Saudi Arabia – which has been spearheading a coalition of Arab states in a devastating war against…

If US Wars aren’t on TV, are all those 1000s really Dying?

Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - The headlines arrive in my inbox day after day: “U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria killed hundreds of civilians, U.N. panel says.” “Pentagon wants to declare…

Can Iran, Turkey and Egypt Cooperate to deliver Mideast from Chaos?

Farhang Jahanpour | ( Tehran Times | - - TEHRAN - Professor Farhang Jahanpour, part-time tutor on the Middle East in the Department of Continuing Education at the University of Oxford, tells…

Trump’s Escalations of War in Syria—Sleepwalking into a Global Confrontation

By Reese Erlich | (The Progressive) | - - Syrian President Bashar al Assad claims to have won the war and that he is merely mopping up remaining rebel groups. With its…

Trump accuses Syrian of Planning Gas attack as Haley attacks Russia, Iran

Trump accuses Syria of Planning Gas attack as Haley attacks Russia, Iran

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Trump administration is making noise about striking Syria, on the grounds that Damascus is planning to use poison gas again. Trump's Neoconservative…

Turkey’s Erdogan: Saudi demand he close Qatar base is ‘Disrespectful’

TeleSur | - - Erdogan told journalists after Eid al-Fitr prayers that "It (the list of demands from Qatar's neighbors to lift the ban) is a breach of Qatar's sovereignty rights." On…

Civilians Fleeing as Battle for Mosul enters last days

by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Iraqi army has created pathways for civilians trapped in Mosul to escape and at least 100 have managed to flee to safety.…

Tense Eid 1.2 mn Syrian Refugees in Lebanon

Tense Eid for 1.2 mn Syrian Refugees in Lebanon

By Billie Jeanne Brownlee | (The Conversation) | - - For Syrian refugees in Lebanon marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, it has been a struggle to find enough food to…

Can the Sadr Movement in Iraq overcome Sectarianism with new Shiite-Sunni-Kurdish Party?

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | ( Niqash.org) | - - One of Iraq’s most powerful political groupings, the Sadrist movement, is trying to form a new alliance that may unite secular,…

Was ISIL’s destruction of Mosul’s Grand Mosque Grand Strategy?

Was ISIL’s destruction of Mosul’s Nuri Mosque Grand Strategy?

By Benjamin Isakhan and Jose Antonio Gonzalez Zarandona | (The Conversation) | - - On June 29 2014 – nearly three years ago to the day – Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi took the…

In Apocalyptic Vandalism, ISIL blows up 800-year-old Nuri Mosque in Mosul

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - al-Hayat (Life) reports that on Wednesday evening around 9:30 pm local time, Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) blew up the Nuri Mosque in Mosul. The…

All Signs from Trump Point to a Coming Conflict with Iran

By John Feffer | Foreign Policy in Focus | - - Behind all of Trump's boneheaded policies in the Middle East is an unmistakable urge for confrontation with Iran. The Saudi war…

Will New Crown Prince in Riyadh Usher in Open Saudi-Israeli Alliance?

TeleSur | - - The young Saudi king-in-waiting has been hailed as a "modernizer" for his open support of normalizing ties with the Israeli occupation, first and foremost. The Gulf Arab “game…

The Millennial’s Palace Coup in Saudi Arabia: How Dangerous?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The epic battle in the Trump White House between Jared Kushner, the Orthodox Jewish son-in-law, and Steve Bannon, the alt-NeoNazi White House strategist,…

Trump’s Love Affair With the Saudis

By William D. Hartung | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - At this point, it’s no great surprise when Donald Trump walks away from past statements in service to some impulse of the…