The BBC reports that approximately 52 people, including five police chiefs and three sons of cabinet ministers were arrested yesterday for their alleged involvement in a bribery scandal. The operation is believed to be a part a larger political offensive led by Fethullah Gulen, a prominent Turkish Muslim leader currently living in exile in the U.S., and […]
A unique humanitarian effort to shed light on and offer hope to those affected by the ongoing conflict in Syria harnessed the power of art. From November 3-6, areas along the Syrian border became canvases for international graffiti artists. In this demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria, deep in the area known as the Golan […]
Iran and world powers gather in Geneva to resume nuclear talks. Iran and the six world powers of P5+1 (the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (the United States, Russia, China, France, and Britain plus Germany), meet today, November 20 in Geneva to resume the stalled nuclear talks. Represented by moderate Foreign Minister […]
Editor’s Note: The following Op-Ed piece is by Bijan Kian. The Honorable Bijan R. Kian is a globally recognized senior commercial diplomat, business leader and international banker. Twice confirmed by the Senate of the United States, he served under both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama as a member of the Board of Directors of the Export […]
Show your support on Twitter and Facebook by reposting and retweeting United for Iran’s messages on Monday, November 18th and Tuesday the 19th. Use the hashtag #IranVote. As the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee prepares to vote on the resolution on the promotion and protection of human rights in Iran on November 19, 25 […]
The prospect of a nuclear deal with Iran is in the air. Members of Congress and friends of the United States on multiple continents are pouncing on it. Attention was drawn last week to the failure of negotiations to produce a breakthrough on Iran’s nuclear program. As in the past, the talks included Iran and […]
Check out this very insightful piece from Ahmed Charai on Huffington Post, “A Regal Response to an Undue Provocation.” Ahmed makes a very good point that what makes Morocco stand out in a region of instability is King Mohammed VI’s visionary leadership. (It goes to show what I have always believed that good leadership, an open […]
A few months ago, Iran denied that a tweet coming from its President was legitimate by simply denying that the Twitter account issuing the tweet was legitimate. Last week, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, spoke briefly with a reporter from the Israeli newspaper Maariv, before delivering a speech at the UN Economic, Scientific and Cultural […]
A new Reuters investigation details a key to Iran’s supreme leader’s power: a little-known organization created to help the poor that morphed into a business juggernaut worth tens of billions of dollars. “Setad Ejraiye Farmane Hazrate Emam” – Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, or Setad – has become one of the most […]
Editor’s Note: The following article was recently published in SITREP, The Journal of the Royal Canadian Military Institute. Re-Published with Permission from SITREP, Issue #6 Nov – Dec 2013 by Reza Akhlaghi Silicon Valley in the southern region of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California has been home to America’s most innovative […]
By Manuel Langendorf In the absence of other alternatives, Islamists were elected by default. Political Islam is among the most controversially discussed issues in the Middle East and North Africa. While modern Islamist political thought traces its origin back to a rejection of European encroachment into the Muslim world – as the work of Jamal al-Din […]
Quick quiz. Which of the following are forbidden in Iran? Walking a dog in public Having a pet cat Twitter, Gmail, Facebook and YouTube Reading (or watching) Harry Potter Barbie Being gay Rocking a mullet Wearing jeans If you answered all of them, you would be almost correct. While skinny jeans have been officially banned […]
To say this documentary puts the Israelis in a bad light is a great understatement. It is hard, watching this film, to not want to ally oneself with the Palestinians portrayed in it. The documentary is about the erection of the wall Israel was building in 2002 that hems in the West Bank. We see […]
As many people are now aware, the Syrian insurgency is a diverse and fractionated operation. Including all the minor, local militias, there are an estimated 1,200 rebel organizations playing some role in it. Western observers tend to divide them into pro-Western and Islamist, but this is a simplification. The independent-minded groups have many shades of […]
Below is an article by Roger Cohen in the New York Times, which favorably references an op-ed by David Harris, the head of the American Jewish Committee. Cohen means to demonstrate that even Harris thinks that Netanyahu “blustered” too much about Iran in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly this week. (Incidentally, he […]