Historically, Yemen gets dragged into a lot of wars, but only once in awhile are their versions of those wars particularly long or consequential. The Saudi invasion of Yemen in 2015 started a war that most Yemenis figured would be over fairly soon, as the Saudis were determined to prop up a friendly puppet state. Read More…
Jason Ditz
Iran: We Only Want to Sell Our Oil
A new round of talks between Iran and the European members of the P5+1 nuclear deal are expected Friday. Iranian officials say they’re only going in to talks wanting one thing out of the deal: “our demand is to be able to sell our oil.“ Iranian officials say they consider the right to sell oil Read More…
US Continues to Talk Up Attacking Iran With ‘Overwhelming Force’
Trump Administration officials continue to talk up the idea of a war with Iran at every opportunity. In the past few days, talk of the “Iranian threat” has grown, even though there is no question the US would be the one to attack, not Iran. Still, officials try to make it appear an inevitability. Secretary Read More…
Venezuela’s Guaido Seeks Military Aid For Regime Change
The Trump Administration was quick to recognize Juan Guaido as the rightful ruler of Venezuela, but going from that to the de facto ruler is taking Guaido a lot longer than he apparently expected. He’s planning a major May 1 march. He says it will be the “biggest march in history” and will demand that President Maduro Read More…
$4.2 Billion IMF Bailout For Ecuador Paved The Way For Assange’s Arrest
WikiLeaks has long reported that the $4.2 billion IMF bailout [in addition to another $6 billion from other U.S.-dominated financial institutions like the World Bank] for Ecuador was closely related to complying with US demands, in particular on revoking the asylum of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. On Thursday, that appeared to come to pass. Following recent days Read More…
US Sees Bigger Role For Libya’s Haftar As Key to Avoiding Civil War
Libyan National Army (LNA) head Khalifa Haftar, who is in the process of attacking the capital city of Tripoli for at least the third time since 2014, is reportedly being pushed by the US government for a bigger role in official Libyan affairs. This could include making him the head of the actual Libyan military, instead Read More…