Author: M Barbu

The US has voiced willingness to end support for Iran’s protest movement if Tehran stops selling drones to Moscow and makes concessions on its nuclear program.

There is a long history of western powers fuelling public unrest in Iran, even pre-dating the establishment of the Islamic Republic. But what makes the on-going protests since mid-September unique is that Washington is also signalling interest in reaching an accommodation with Tehran under certain conditions.

Russia has offered to mediate and facilitate a meeting between Turkiye and Syria, with limited success

On 6 December, Orhan Miroglu, the head of the Justice and Development Party, reported that Damascus turned down Ankara’s proposal to set up a meeting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Al-Mayadeen news reported.

US convoys in Hasakah have been limited to deterring Turkish strikes on oil installations, in fear of further degradation of the decaying infrastructure

Lebanese daily newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on 7 December that the US-backed Kurdish militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has suffered immensely in the latest wave of Turkish airstrikes on northern Syria.

During a two-week visit to Iran in November, I witnessed women of all ages walking freely on the streets without the hijab. But, what we’re not told, is that they have been doing so for years.

The explosion of protests in Iran that began in September were not about the Islamic Republic’s “hijab law” specifically, but about the abuses and excesses of the so-called morality police – the Gasht-e-Ershad (also known simply as Ershad, or in English, the ‘guidance patrol’) – against regular Iranian women who were considered to be immodestly garbed.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian described the three islands in the Persian Gulf as inseparable and eternal parts of Iran, stressing that Tehran will by no means compromise on its territorial integrity. 

An Iraqi court judgment imprisoning a young man for criticizing a governmental entity sparked anger and rejection in the southern province of Nasiriyah last week, prompting hundreds of young people to demonstrate and confront the security forces, who killed at least two demonstrators.