US Foreign Policy

Iran confirms it is Talking with the Biden Administration about Nuclear Enrichment, Prisoners and Regional Relations

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It is coming out that the US and Iran have been talking privately in Oman about a range of bilateral issues, including prisoner exchanges and Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program. This news emerged, according to Barak Ravid at Axios in the form of a complaint from Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin […]

China

Sudan conflict: how China and Russia are involved and the differences between them

The Conversation

By Marcel Plichta, University of St Andrews and Mateja Peter, University of St Andrews | – As clashes continue between the Sudanese military and rapid support forces, the current and historic role of foreign governments in Sudanese affairs is under close examination. Unsurprisingly, the Sudan conflict has amplified concerns from the US and other countries […]

China

Is China trying to supplant Washington as Peacemaker between Israel and Palestine?

Ramzy Baroud

Dr Ramzy Baroud RamzyBaroud ( Middle East Monitor ) – Remarks on 24 May by China’s Ambassador to the UN on the situation in Occupied Palestine were impeccable in terms of their consistency with international law. Compared with the position of the US, which perceives the UN and the Security Council in particular as a […]

Climate Crisis

Thumbing Nose at US, Saudi Cuts Oil production, Helping Russian War Effort, as Maduro Visits Riyadh

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) of Saudi Arabia has taken several steps sure to annoy Washington in just the past week. Iran has reopened its embassy in Riyadh. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros has come for a visit to the kingdom just before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s […]

Pentagon

The Compulsion to Intervene: Why Washington Underwrites Violence in Ukraine

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Allow me to come clean: I worry every time Max Boot vents enthusiastically about a prospective military action. Whenever that Washington Post columnist professes optimism about some upcoming bloodletting, misfortune tends to follow. And as it happens, he’s positively bullish about the prospect of Ukraine handing Russia a decisive defeat in […]

Donald Trump

Smoking Gun: Trump’s Theft of Classified Iran Materials Caught on Tape, May bring him down

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – When Trump murdered several people by drone at Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020, including Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian government vowed that it would get revenge on him someday. It was a hollow threat. Iran’s rulers know better than to provoke the U.S. at that level. Ironically […]

US Foreign Policy

The Wars we don’t (Care to) See: Aggression Made Easy

Tomdispatch

By David Barsamian and Norman Solomon ( Tomdispatch.com ) – [The following is excerpted and adapted from David Barsamian’s recent interview with Norman Solomon at AlternativeRadio.org.] David Barsamian: American Justice Robert Jackson was the chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. He made an opening statement to the Tribunal on November 21, 1945, because there was […]

Featured

On Memorial Day, We’re Finally not in a Shooting War, but if We’re not Careful We could Fall into One

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Memorial Day, the United States is not in a significant shooting war. It seems to me that the best way to honor our more than 1.1 million war dead is to work to keep it that way. Memorial Day should be not a paean to war but a solemn […]

Featured

The Limits of Saudi Normalization with Israel

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Biden administration is devoting what energy the State Department has aside from the effort to defend Ukraine to achieving diplomatic normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The premise for this entry of the Saudis into the Abraham Accords is that it would seek an alliance with Israel against Iran. […]