Category: Middle East

By Mortezagholi Raissi BERLIN (IDN) – Plagued by domestic turmoil and the Trump Administration threatening regime change, not only the government in Iran but the entire theocratic regime too are faced with a far from envious situation, according to political observers. What started off as protests spurred on by the deteriorating economic conditions in Iran […]

By Abderrahim Ouarghidi* MARRAKECH (IDN) – The Moroccan proverb ‘New things have a charm and old ones should be preserved’ has wide applicability in current Moroccan agricultural practices and attitudes toward conventional and local crop varieties. The revealing adage is part of the Moroccan identity and way of life. Moroccan people are committed to establishing […]

By Reinhardt Jacobsen VIENNA | BEIRUT (IDN) – The Government of Japan has announced that it will fund a project to create jobs in the carpentry and construction sectors in northern Lebanon. This is one of eight new projects implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Liberia, Nigeria, […]

By J C Suresh WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) – The Trump administration’s latest missile strikes in response to Syrian chemical weapons use is not embedded within a broader U.S. strategy to deter further chemical weapons use, protect Syrian civilians caught in the horrible Syrian civil war, and bring a political resolution to the seven-year misery of […]

By Mirjam van Reisen and Gilad Liberman BRUSSELS (IDN) – The previous two days have been rather turbulent in Israel’s policy towards African refugees seeking asylum. On April 2, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a halt to deportations to Rwanda, believed to be the “third-country” he had mentioned for the first time, while announcing […]

By Sean Buchanan This is the fourth in a series of reports highlighting salient aspects of Transparency International‘s latest analysis on challenges posed by corruption around the world as well as successes and failures of efforts targeting a scourge that eats into the vitals of human rights. – The Editor. LONDON (IDN) – In a region […]

By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA | TEL AVIV (IDN) – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is negotiating with Israel to resettle a portion of African asylum seekers in third countries deemed by the UN to be “safe,” perhaps including Western countries, in exchange for some of the refugees to be given permanent residency in Israel, according […]

By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA (IDN) – Despite being elected as member of the Human Rights Council at the end of 2016, Saudi Arabia has “continued its practice of silencing, arbitrarily arresting, detaining and persecuting human rights defenders and critics,” according to a group of top United Nations human rights experts. “We are also seeking the […]

By Tayé-Brook Zerihoun Tayé-Brook Zerihoun is the Assistant Secretary-General for United Nations Department of Political Affairs. The following are extensive excerpts from his ‘briefing’ to the Security Council on ‘The Situation in the Middle East’ on 5 January 2018. UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – The protests in the Islamic Republic of Iran started on 28 December […]

By Rodney Reynolds NEW YORK (IDN) – The politics of the Trump administration are being increasingly governed by the twin policies of unilateralism and isolationism. After Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016, he withdrew from a historic 2016 climate change agreement signed by 195 countries – and the only signatory to do so. […]