Iran is one of the Middle East’s most politically important countries and its central government has transformed significantly over the past century. Once a monarchy, Iran became an Islamic republic in 1979, but its elected presidents ultimately ceded authority to the Rahbar, a theocratic Supreme Leader. Iran’s authoritarian government and association with terrorist groups have often forced...
Many Syrians who had fled the war face gross human rights violations and abuses upon their return to Syria, according to a report by the UN Human Rights Office released today. The documented violations and abuses have been perpetrated by the Government, de facto authorities and other armed groups across the country, the report states. They include arbitrary detention,...
The United Arab Emirates has dispatched an ambassador to Damascus for the first time since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, Syria’s state media reported today, in a new signal of Syria’s warming ties with the Arab region, Reuters reports. Incoming Emirati envoy Hassan Al-Shehi presented his credentials to Syria’s Foreign Affair Minister Faysal Al-Meqdad at...
Ethnic slaughter is taking place in Darfur on a scale reminiscent of the genocide of 2003-5. Peace campaigners say that the Janjaweed, who were responsible for the killing of 400,000 of Sudan’s Black Africans two decades ago, have stepped up their efforts to eliminate non-Arab tribes, knowing the world’s attention is elsewhere. Vicky Ford MP,...
An Eritrean trafficker promised to help Africans desperate to reach Europe—then brutalized them inside a Libyan compound while extorting their families back home. With his fortune, he partied in Dubai. Daniel Yalke was twenty when he left Ethiopia and set off for Europe. One of six siblings from a poor family in Cherkos, a tough...