Facts, News, Trends, Analysis
Juan Cole’s blog has a guest writer today, Jim Crane, author of City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism. A paragraph from the guest blog notes, “In short, Dubai is an open city, a Hong Kong-style trading entrepôt with all the spies, smugglers and schemers inherent in that role. It just happens to [...]
September 4, 2009 Turkey had a change of mind on how much water it could release to its neighbors, Iraq and Syria.
David Hulme
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Ethan Bronner is Jerusalem bureau chief for the The Times. Here he reviews a new collection of scholarly essays on how to resolve the ME’s various critical problems. The authors, who work in two ME think tanks deal in “nuance and realism, despite small lapses.” The two policy research groups also have close relations to [...]
December 5th, as President Bush prepares to leave office he will undoubtedly be forced to reflect on his handling of many issues and countries during his presidency. In his speech today, he accused both Syria and Iran of supporting terrorism and voiced his displeasure with how long it has taken for democratic principles to be [...]
President Ahmadinejad has publicly conceded that the continued drop in oil prices is hurting the economy. This admission comes at a difficult time–close to next year’s election, and when his approval ratings have already declined. Oil prices have plummeted and the effect this has had on Iran, whose main export is oil, is a serious [...]
Hezbollah’s statements that they plan to take over the Lebanese government in the upcoming election, includes talk about how they will govern the country under a national unity government and work closely with Sunni-led coalitions as well. They think they will be able to grab the majority in the Legislature in the 2009 elections and [...]
The Iranian government rarely discloses information that it perceives would draw international criticism, but it announced yesterday that the country has a total of 18,320 people who have tested positive for HIV. That figure represents all those who have been tested; however, the UN AIDS Agency estimates that number to be far higher, including [...]
The Iranian Navy has begun military exercises in the Oman Sea in an effort to ensure readiness against its purported enemies and also as a posturing action to the international community. The Iranian media has stated that “more than 60 destroyers, light and heavy submarines, helicopters, aircraft, and reconnaissance drones were tested in the maneuver.” [...]
The chafiyeh, the white-and-black scarf worn by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and loyal adherents of the Iranian revolution for nearly 30 years, has taken on a new meaning in Iran these days. It is the newest fashion craze in Iran’s underground rap scene. Young Iranians who have taken up an interest in western pop–satanic music to [...]
Sunday, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, stated that Iran is going to offer to build joint light-water nuclear power plants with its Arab neighbors. These states have been historically suspicious of Persian military might–suspicions that have been aroused anew with the development of Tehran’s nuclear program. [...]
