Iran’s clerical leadership, under “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali HoseiniKhamene‘i, is expected to make rapid, significant, and symbolic responses to the targeted killing in Baghdad on January 3, 2019, of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Maj.-Gen. Qasem Soleimani. It seems unlikely that the Iranian response would initially be to launch a military assault
Read MoreA great deal of media spinning has attempted to portray these demonstrations as an anti-Iranian, anti-resistance revolt A Lebanese protester stands in front of burning tyres on the northern outskirts of Beirut on 13 November (AFP) The wave of protests shaking the world resembles a global uprising against neoliberalism. This could be a sign of the insoluble c
Read MoreWahhabism is named after its founder, Muhammed ibn (son of) Abdul-Wahhab. Since the Wahhabis have proven to be the most fanatical of all so-called Islamic extremists (Islam never advocates extremism), it is not out of place here to introduce the reader to the founder of Wahhabism while narrating the mischief he and his ignorant Bedouin zealots committed against the shrine of
Read MoreThis is the introduction to a series of memos presented as part of a workshop organised by the LSE Middle East Centre on 13 June 2018, looking at Tribe and State in the Middle East. Members of the Qashqai tribal confederation in Iran. Source: Globetrotters On 13 June 2018, the LSE Middle East Centre organised a workshop entitled ‘Tribe and State in the Middle East’ gatheri
Read MoreIntroduction: With the focus of the international community confined to a great degree to Iran’s nuclear capability, a trend has emerged in the MENA region with more and more countries vying for nuclear technology albeit for peaceful purposes, primarily as a mean to produce electricity preserving its hydrocarbon industry, i.e., the oil gas sector and maximizing its retu
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