The Saudi Arabia–UAE battle against Qatar is a struggle for regional power with no heroes to cheer for.
The June 5 decision by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Egypt to suspend diplomatic ties with Qatar has sent shockwaves through the Middle East.
The ensuing (...)
A brewing conflict among the rulers of the Persian Gulf region reached a crisis stage in early June when Saudi Arabia led other countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in cutting ties with Qatar. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain have halted all land, air and sea (...)
On June 4, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt (followed a few hours later by Bahrain, Yemen, the Maldives, Mauritania and the Libyan dissident government) broke off relations with the Emirate of Qatar for its links with “terrorist organizations and denominational groups seeking to (...)
IT’S AMAZING TO see what 60 or so Cruise missiles (price tag $1.6 million apiece) and one $16 million 22,000-pound “Mother of All Bombs” (MOAB) can do for a floundering White House.
Suddenly Donald Trump’s image became so very seriously “presidential.” Overshadowed at least for the moment were the (...)
Six years ago, on 17 December 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi immolated himself in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid. Bouazizi did not know that by this extreme form of protest, he was setting not only himself or his town on fire, nor his province or even his Tunisian homeland alone, but the whole Arab (...)
Gilbert Achcar, Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising (Stanford: Stanford University Press and London: Saqi, 2016).
Jadaliyya (J): What made you write this book?
Gilbert Achcar (GA): Two reasons: one general and one practical. The general reason is the need to assess the new (...)
Syrians and Palestinians to suffer most with the doors to refugees slammed while US-Israel relations are in question.
Regarding foreign policy in general and the Middle East in particular, Donald Trump, as the new president of the United States, would stand out as the most unpredictable man to (...)
Socialist Worker has republished a 1938 essay by Leon Trotsky, called “Learn to Think,” about imperialism and liberation struggles, which is already available on ESSF website . We are reproducing below the opening comment by Ashley Smith to SW publication.
THE LEFT and antiwar formations are in (...)
Without compelling change on ground there is no end for war in Syria, says prominent political scientist Gilbert Achcar.
With US President Barack Obama approaching the final weeks of his time in the Oval Office, it is clear he is leaving behind an incomplete vision for democracy and peace in (...)
Both the Syrian regime and the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen aim to bury the aspirations of the Arab Spring.
The Arab political opinion falls into two main categories: those who condemn the murderous and destructive bombing of Syrian cities and rural areas by the Syrian regime and its Russian (...)
Ashley Smith analyzes the complex conflicts driving the crisis in the Middle East—and fueling the drive for an intensified U.S. intervention in Iraq, and possibly Syria.
THE ISLAMIC State in Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) horrifying execution of American photojournalist James Foley has given the Obama (...)
“I should like to draw a line from the ‘e’ in Acre to the last ‘k’ in Kirkuk.” British colonel Mark Sykes was stooped, finger poised, over a map of the Middle East. Over his shoulder stood French diplomat François Georges-Picot. The year was 1915. They were discussing a secret agreement that would (...)
Responses to Zamaneh’s Questions Concerning the Alliance of Syrian & Iranian Socialists
Zamaneh– Your site is a link between the Other Syria and the Other Iran. How would you define this “Other?”
Joseph Daher and Frieda Afary – In one sense, this “Other” includes all individuals and groups who (...)
The repressive policies and actions of authoritarian regimes to crush popular movements and any forms of resistance have increased the number of political prisoners throughout the region during the past few years. The activists and revolutionaries imprisoned nevertheless do not kneel in front (...)
Gilbert Achcar interviewed by Against the Current.
Against the Current: What does the recently announced “cease fire” in Syria mean, and what are the chances it will hold?
Gilbert Achcar: Please note, first of all, that it is not officially called a cease-fire but rather a “cessation of (...)
Five years after the beginning of the popular Syrian Revolution which demanded democracy and human rights, the Syrian revolutionaries have been decimated through the combined military force of the Assad Regime, the Iranian regime with its sectarian militias, Russian air strikes and military (...)
Recent mass movements in Middle Eastern and North African countries, despite their defeats and failures, showed prospects and possibilities of a progressive change or a progressive mass organization in the region. Fulfillment of these possibilities requires concentrating on attaining a (...)
In January 2011, days after the first uprising in Tunisia and the protests in Tahrir Square, the Guardian invited leading writers from across the Arab world to reflect on the revolutionary fervour sweeping the region. Then, they expressed great optimism for the future. Here, they revisit their (...)
Political tensions have continued to increase between the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and Saudi Arabia since the execution on January 2 by Ryadh of the political opponent Sheikh Nimr,[i] a leader of the popular demonstrations against the Saudi kingdom started in 2011 in the eastern regions (...)
It’s been five years since the start of the Tunisian uprising. What was won — and what remains — in the Arab Spring?
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the start of the Arab uprising. Sparked in Tunisia on December 17, 2010, a wave of revolutionary contagion spread across the Arab world. (...)
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