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Michael Jansen
By Michael Jansen - Aug 05,2015
The total collapse of all misbegotten US strategies for dealing with the conflict in Syria came last week.
By Michael Jansen - Jul 29,2015
Twenty-five years ago Iraq invaded Kuwait following a dispute over Kuwait’s refusal to curb oil exports to raise the price to $20 a barrel and allegations that the emirate was slant drilling into Iraq’s Rumaila oil field.
By Michael Jansen - Jul 22,2015
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hysterical reaction to the deal reached between Iran and the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany (P5+1) was particularly disturbing because opposition parties in what the liberal Israeli daily Haaretz called the “Zionis
By Michael Jansen - Jul 15,2015
Iranians danced in the streets on Tuesday night to celebrate the deal between the six world powers and Tehran over their country’s nuclear programme. Iranians have good reason to cheer.
By Michael Jansen - Jul 09,2015
The life of Yusif Sayigh, Arab economist and political activist, spanned a turbulent era in the history of this region.Born in Palestine in 1916 to a Palestinian mother and a Syrian father, and raised in two very different villages in both countries, Yusif witnessed the dramatic
By Michael Jansen - Jul 01,2015
The Tunisian government clearly did not learn the lesson delivered in March by Daesh at the Bardo Museum in the country’s capital.The attack by two gunmen left 24 dead, 20 of them tourists on a shore visit from cruise ships.Last Friday’s attack by a lone gunman at the Imperial Ma
By Michael Jansen - Jun 24,2015
The attempts by Druze living in Israel and the occupied Golan to interdict en route to hospital ambulances carrying Syrians wounded across the ceasefire line in battles with Syrian government forces have put the Israeli army in a difficult position.In the first incident, which to
By Michael Jansen - Jun 17,2015
The battle between Kurdish militiamen and Daesh over the strategic Syrian border town of Tel Abyan has been a crucial test for both sides; Daesh is certain to try to regain control.The town, across from the Turkish city of Akcakale, is located on the route from Ain Al Arab (Koban
By Michael Jansen - Jun 10,2015
This week’s parliamentary elections deepened Turkey’s democracy by, at long last, bringing the Kurds, who make up 20 per cent of the population, into the political mainstream.The chief victor in this contest between four parties was the leftist People’s Democratic Party (HDP), ba
By Michael Jansen - Jun 04,2015
When voters in Turkey’s 81 provinces cast their votes in 175,000 ballot boxes in 970 districts in the June 7 parliamentary election, they could decide the fate of democracy in their country.If they give the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) a resounding mandate and up to