Middle East

Photo: The foreign ministers from Iran and the countries of the P5+1, as well as the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, after agreeing the Iran Nuclear deal, 14 July 2015. Courtesy of Dragan Tatic/Wikimedia.

US Seeks Iran Arms Embargo Extension Riling Europe

By Kelsey Davenport and Julia Masterson

While Julia Masterson is research assistant, Kelsey Davenport is director for nonproliferation policy at Arms Control Association. The Association's website published this analysis on May 15.

WASHINGTON (IDN) – The United States is considering a range of options to prevent the October 2020 expiration of a UN embargo that restricts arms sales to and from Iran. Those options include making a legal case that the United States remains a bona fide participant of the nuclear deal with Iran that it withdrew from in May 2018 in order to use a Security Council provision to block the embargo's expiration.

: Arms Control Association; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 16 May 2020

Photo: President Richard Nixon met with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on October 8, 1973, in Washington in the Oval Office of the White House and said that the U.S. intended to make every effort to bring an end to the fighting in the Middle East. Nixon did not detail the Administration’s position to be put forward in the UN Security Council on that day but said that the US would not make a grandstand play. (UPI Photo/Files)

Tale of a Machiavellian US in the Middle East

The US Has to Work with Russia, Not Against It

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – The war in Syria has dropped out of the news, like almost everything else, in a time when the Coronavirus seems to dominate all discourse and reporting. But the regime of Bashar al-Assad continues to strangle its own country. The Russians continue to bomb on his behalf, terrifying civilians and hospitals. The Americans work semi-clandestinely to undermine both the regime and its Russian backers.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 12 May 2020

Photo: A wide view of the Security Council meeting as Nickolay Mladenov (on screen), UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, briefs the Council on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question. (18 October 2018 - UN Photo/Rick Bajornas)

UN Concerned About the 'Growing Threat' of Annexation of Palestine

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – As the world's attention is turned to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, a special Committee of the UN General Assembly has alerted about "the threat of annexation" of the Palestinian territory by Israel. "Annexation is a threat to the two-state solution," the Committee accentuated.

Earlier, on April 23, UN Special Coordinator Nickolay Mladenov warned the Security Council of "the dangerous prospect of annexation by Israel of parts of the occupied West Bank is a growing threat".

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 09 May 2020

Photo: ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, presents her Office’s 19th report on the Situation in Libya remotely. © ICC-CPI

ICC Prosecutor Reminds the Security Council of a Special Responsibility for Libya

By Fatou Bensouda

The following are extensive excerpts from the International Criminal Court Prosecutor Ms Fatou Bensouda's statement by video to the UN Security Council on May 5.

NEW YORK | THE HAGUE (IDN) – Despite some inevitable limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, my Office's Libya team is forging ahead with its judicial work and investigations, managing to remain active and productive in these exceptional times. The Libya situation remains a priority for my Office, and I seize the opportunity in this forum to announce that my team is working on applications for new warrants of arrest.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 06 May 2020

US Coercive Measures Against Iran Hurting Women

Viewpoint by Azadeh Moaveni and Ali Vaez

The two writers are affiliated to the Crisis Group: Azadeh Moaveni is Project Director, Gender; and Ali Vaez is Iran Project Director. This commentary is being republished by courtesy of the Brussels-based Crisis Group which first carried it on 6 March 2020.

BRUSELS (IDN) – On 21 May 2018, less than two weeks after the U.S. withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo launched Washington’s “New Iran Strategy” before an audience at the Heritage Foundation. In his remarks, he insisted that Iranian women’s long struggle for inclusion and equality matters dearly to Washington.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 02 May 2020

Photo: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz signing the agreement on the goverment. (Photo: File)

ISRAEL: How 'Centrist' Gantz Resurrected Rightist Netanyahu

By Ramzy Baroud *

This article was first published on the author's website www.ramzybaroud.net on 22 April 2020.

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE, Washington (IDN) -– It was intended to be a Machiavellian move, but the decision by Benny Gantz, leader of Israel’s Kahol Lavan (Blue and White) coalition, to join a Benjamin Netanyahu-led government is likely to destabilize the political fabric of Israeli society for years to come.

In a surprising move, Gantz has entered into precarious political compromises, whereby he would become the Speaker of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), as a prelude to the formation of a national unity government which will include the ruling Likud party and Blue and White.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Middle East; 25 April 2020

Photo: The 9th (Extraordinary) OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting was held via webinar, on Thursday, 09 April 2020, under the Chairmanship of Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy. Credit: Saudi Arabia Press Agency.

Why the OPEC+ Deal Is a Many-Splendoured Thing

Viewpoint by M.K. Bhadrakumar

The writer is a former Indian diplomat. This article was produced in partnership by Indian Punchline and Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute where it first appeared.

NEW DELHI (IDN) – A perfect deal is where all protagonists get something out of it. All oil-producing countries stand to gain if the oil price rebounds. In bare-bones, the OPEC+ group led by Saudi Arabia and Russia finalized, in a nail-biting photo finish on April 12, an agreement to steeply cut oil production by a combined 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) for May and June to rebalance the supply and demand in the world market and nudge the prices to go up amid the coronavirus pandemic.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 April 2020

Photo: Pyramids are the backbone of Egyptian tourism. Credit: IFPRI.

Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Tourism and Remittances – Insights from Egypt

Viewpoint by Clemens Breisinger, Abla Abdel Latif, Mariam Raouf and Manfred Wiebelt

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – The economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis are increasingly hitting low- and middle-income countries and the poor. International travel restrictions and the full or partial closure of businesses and industries in Asia, Europe, and North America have led to a collapse in global travel and are expected to reduce the flows of remittances. Tourism and remittances are important sources of employment and incomes for the poor, respectively. This post assesses the potential impacts of the expected reductions in these income flows by using Egypt as a case study.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 13 April 2020

Iran Should Demonstrate That Its Nuclear Program Is Peaceful

By Kelsey Davenport and Julia Masterson

This article first appeared on Arms Control Association Website. Kelsey Davenport is director for nonproliferation policy, and Julia Masterson research assistant

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi raised concerns earlier in March about Tehran’s failure to cooperate with an agency investigation into possible storage and use of undeclared nuclear materials at three locations in Iran.

: Arms Control Association; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 19 March 2020

Photo: Protests after U.S. decision CC BY 4.0to withdraw from JCPOA, around former U.S. embassy, Tehran, on 8 May 2018. CC BY 4.0

Trump's Abandonment of Nuclear Deal with Iran Backfires

By Reinhard Jacobsen

VIENNA (IDN) — The quarterly report on Iran released by UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on March 3 has revealed a significant increase in the country's stockpile of enriched uranium since its last report. The stockpile stood at 1,020.9 kg in February, up from 372.3 kg in November 2019, reports Jane's Defence Weekly.

This 648.6 kg increase is raising international concern as it marks a significant breach of the 300 kg stockpile limit imposed on Iran by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Iran and the P5+1— China France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States — on July 14, 2015. The nuclear deal was endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, adopted on July 20, 2015.