Geography Archives: Middle East

Western analysts and policymakers need to rethink their basic calculations about the Islamic Republic’s domestic politics.  This rethinking should start with a recognition that the Green movement is not the future of Iranian politics; in fact, it’s not even the future of what at least used to be called the “reform movement.”  By sticking with […]

  Despite what the experts of barefoot diplomacy1 never stop repeating, there is nothing even remotely anti-American in the Brazilian position on Iran: our motives, unlike those of the bullying trio (USA, France, United Kingdom), are clear, transparent and openly stated several times. We support the peaceful development of nuclear energy.  We do not believe […]

  Listen to Amy Goodman’s interview with Oliver Stone and Tariq Ali: Oliver Stone: So, Chávez was sort of a natural [as a subject for his work] because he is such a demonized, polarizing figure, but when I met him, it was not at all what I thought, you know, what we made him out […]

A cartoon mocking “Green Wave” leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi, drawn by an Iranian cartoonist in exile Nikahang Kowsar, has reportedly been withdrawn from Rooz Online: Mir-Hossein Mousavi penning his Statement No. 300 in Khordad 1399/June 2020 Golnaz Esfandiari of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty writes that “Kowsar . . . a contributor to Rooz, confirmed the removal […]

  Marzieh Hashemi: American geologists say Afghanistan is filled with minerals, from iron ore, lithium, to gold and much more.  The values of the minerals are said to be estimated at around a trillion dollars. . . .  Would a mineral-rich Afghanistan affect the way that the United States is running its war machine there? […]

  In Oakland, California, an Israeli ship was blocked by protesters for the first time in history.  700-1,000 protesters blocked three different gates at 5:30 A.M. keeping dockworkers from unloading the Israeli cargo.  ILWU members refused to cross picketline — citing “health & safety” provisions of their contract.  Management demanded “instant arbitration.”  The arbitrator took […]

Four years ago, when the government of Evo Morales re-nationalized its hydrocarbon industry, the Brazilian media was spoiling for a fight.  After all, Petrobras, the Brazilian oil and gas company, had major interests there.  But President Lula Da Silva was calm.  “I haven’t had a fight with George W. Bush,” he told the press.  “Why […]

Despite a display of global arm-twisting, the Obama administration has fallen short in its latest effort to isolate Iran. It’s true the U.S. was able on June 8 to round up 12 of 15 votes in the United Nations Security Council to impose a fourth round of sanctions on the Islamic Republic.  Only Brazil and […]

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington on June 17 about what he described as Russia’s “schizophrenic” Iran policy.  According to Gates — who started his career in government service during the 1960s as a Soviet analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency — then-Russian President (now Prime Minister) […]

Scare the Gulf States into giving up their moola by manufacturing a specter of Iran under atomic mollas.  Positive growth outlook.  Risk-free investment.  Guaranteed returns. Fahd Bahady is a Syrian cartoonist.  This cartoon was first published in Maktoob on 10 June 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.  The text above is an […]

The interview with Giovanni Arrighi below was conducted on 12 November 2005, at the “Kapitalismus Reloaded” international conference held in Berlin.  It is published in English here today to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Arrighi’s death. A. Fathollah-Nejad (AFN): Does the West have to fear China? G. Arrighi (GA): I don’t think so.  I mean […]

Prior to the 2008 US presidential election, in an essay entitled “What the Future Has in Store for Iran,” I predicted that regardless of who is elected president, the US foreign policy toward Iran will be determined largely by Israel and its various lobby groups in the US, especially the American Israel Public Affairs Committee […]

  The May 28 arrest of U.S. attorney and Chicago native Peter Erlinder by the Paul Kagame dictatorship in Rwanda reveals much about this regime that is routinely sanitized in establishment U.S. and Western media coverage and intellectual life.  But if we use Erlinder’s arrest to call attention to some less-well-known facts, a much grimmer […]

We, the undersigned queer Arab organizations, are appalled by the US Social Forum’s decision to allow Stand with Us to utilize the event as a platform to pinkwash Israel’s crimes in the region. Stand with Us is cynically manipulating the struggle of queer people in the Middle East through its workshop entitled “LGBTQI Liberation in the Middle East”.

Don’t Let Enemies of Freedom Suppress the Truth about
Israel’s Attack on a Humanitarian Aid Ship!
All Out to the House of the Lord Church, 415 Atlantic Ave.
Thursday June 17, 7 pm
MAVI MARMARA SURVIVORS HAVE A RIGHT TO BE HEARD!

Two weeks ago Israeli naval commandos stormed a Turkish ship loaded with humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza.  They murdered 9 unarmed passengers.  The oldest, Ibrahim Bilgen, was 61.  The youngest, Furkan Dogan, a U.S. citizen born in Troy, N.Y., was just 19.

Israel’s declaration that it will establish a commission, composed of Israeli citizens and two foreign observers, in order to investigate the Israeli raid against the Freedom Flotilla does not in any way meet Turkey’s clear demand or international community’s expectations, which were expressed in the Presidential Statement of the United Nations Security Council. Israel does […]

Iran’s Central Bank announced that the annual inflation rate has dropped below 10%, so it may seem like an odd time to talk about how rising inflation might affect Iran’s poor.  But if the government implements the subsidy reform law, as it has promised to do in the second half of this year (Iranian year […]

The thunderous events set in motion by Israel’s storming of the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship in the peace flotilla challenging the blockade of Gaza, have thrown important light on the overall situation in the Middle East.  Turkey has emerged as the major protagonist among the forces that support the Palestinian cause.  This is extremely […]

Erdoğan!  İsrail’le ilişkileri kesin HEMEN! Erdoğan!  Cut the Ties with Israel NOW! Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. | Print

  . . . Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, de facto leaders of the Green Movement, had issued a statement on June 10 asking their supporters to stay home. According to Fars, a semi-official news agency with intimate ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Moussavi and Karroubi were afraid of low turnouts and […]