Category Archives: Near East
Sudan crackdown on protesters: All the latest updates
The latest from Sudan as army clamps down on protesters demanding civilian rule following Omar al-Bashir’s removal.
Sudanese security forces have attacked a protest camp in the country’s capital, Khartoum, opening fire, torching tents, and reportedly killing dozens of people.
| Iran: Preparing the ‘Battle Space’
by Alastair Crooke
Bernard Lewis, a British-American historian of the Middle East, has been formidably influential in America – his policy ideas have towered over Presidents, policy-makers and think-tanks, and they still do. Though he died last year, his baleful views still shape America’s thinking about Iran. Mike Pompeo, for example, has written: “I met him only once, but read much of what he wrote. I owe a great deal of my understanding of the Middle East to his work … He was also a man who believed, as I do, that Americans must be more confident in the greatness of our country, not less”.
Reporter Sharmine Narwani on the secret history of America’s defeat in Syria
by Patrick Lawrence
When the war in Syria was recently declared decisively over, there were few correspondents or witnesses to turn to for a credible look at exactly what happened during eight years of conflict. The questions were many, but I could count on one hand those worth putting them to. Among these was Sharmine Narwani, whose work I have long counted distinctly thorough and honest amid coverage that — in her view as well as mine — hit a new low by way of collapsed professional standards and abandoned ethics. Narwani’s pieces, written for a variety of publications, consistently reflect her hard work on the ground — work nearly no one else did. She is eyes wide open and beholden to no national interest or media slant.
Egypt stages referendum to institutionalize General Sisi’s dictatorship
by Bill Van Auken
Egypt’s military-dominated dictatorship is rushing ahead with a referendum this weekend on constitutional amendments that would effectively make Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi dictator for life, while institutionalizing the bloody repression his regime has carried out against all forms of political opposition and particularly the Egyptian working class.
ANALYSIS: French-Italian scramble over Libya fuels Haftar’s offensive
A diplomatic feud between Italy and France over Libya has divided Europe’s response to Khalifa Haftar’s latest attempt to take control of the country and will only encourage further fighting, analysts say.
