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Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal on Monday said that Iran should withdraw its “occupying” forces in Syria in order to resolve the conflict in the war-torn country. “Our reservations are about Iran’s policy in the region, not about Iran as a country or people”, Prince Saud said at a joint conference in Jeddah after meeting with German Foreign Minister …

By Natalie Shooter – REORIENT In the midst of a nascent film industry, a handful of female filmmakers have emerged in the Arabian Peninsula, pioneering film in the region and using it as a tool to fight for change. Saudi Arabia and Yemen both present volatile environments for any director; in the former, cinemas are illegal, and in both, authorisation …

Spotlight on Political Prisoners in One Iranian City – HRW   The 59-page report is based on a review of 189 cases in three prisons in the city of Karaj, near the capital, Tehran, including the charges they faced, details of their trials before revolutionary courts, and information from lawyers, prisoners’ families, and others. Human Rights Watch concluded that in …

Israel’s Coercion of Eritrean and Sudanese Asylum Seekers to Leave Israel –HRW   This 83-page report documents how Israel’s convoluted legal rules thwart Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers’ attempts to secure protection under Israeli and international law. Israeli authorities have labelled Eritreans and Sudanese a “threat”, branded them “infiltrators,” denied them access to fair and efficient asylum procedures, and used …

The Rab’a Massacre and Mass Killings of Protesters in Egypt – HRW   The 188-page report documents the way the Egyptian police and army methodically opened fire with live ammunition on crowds of demonstrators opposed to the military’s July 3 ouster of Mohamed Morsy, Egypt’s first elected civilian president, at six demonstrations between July 5 and August 17, 2013. While …

C.A. Pinkham – Kitchenette Pittsburgh, PA’s Conflict Kitchen restaurant has come under fire by some members of the city’s Jewish community who are upset that the restaurant has chosen to feature Palestinian food. Those people are assholes. For those of you not familiar with Conflict Kitchen, it’s a restaurant whose cuisine changes regularly on a three-to-five month rotation, but always …

By Philip Weiss- MONDOWEISS Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen says that the Palestinians are to blame for the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 in which 750,000 Palestinians were expelled by or fled Zionist militias and were never allowed to return. In his new book Israel: Is It Good for the Jews? Cohen says that by resisting the Zionist movement …

The Palestinian unity government on Thursday held its first meeting in the Gaza Strip as its rival factions presented a common goal ahead of an important donors’ conference. The meeting happened four months after the government was sworn in ensuing a landmark deal between Hamas and Fatah.The composition of the new unity government was decided by Fatah and Hamas in …

Seventeen people, including a militia chief and several soldiers, were killed in fighting near the Benghazi airport this week, military and medical sources said on Thursday. Libya has been in turmoil since the toppling of longtime dictator Muammar Gadhafi in 2011, and the interim authorities have since been facing the powerful militiamenwho had toppledGadhafi. Salim Nabbous, commander of the Shura …

The international community has responded cautiously to a Turkish proposal to set a buffer zone inside war-ravaged Syria, despite it being an important condition set by Turkey to step up its efforts in the fight against the Islamic State (IS). Over the past few days, Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan has repeatedly asked for the creation of a buffer zone in …