The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the creation of the internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. In an interview with the Guardian, Brin warned there were “very powerful forces that have lined up against the open internet on all sides and around…
Editor’s Note: Meir Javedanfar is an Iranian – Israeli Middle East analyst and the co-author of The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and The State of Iran. The following post was originally published in The Diplomat, a stellar international current-affairs magazine for the Asia-Pacific region. By Meir Javedanfar, The Diplomat The Iranian regime can live without its nuclear program….
Iran recently unveiled what it described as ‘very big new achievements’ in nuclear science [Reuters] People & Power examines a dispute taking place against much sabre-rattling but in which the truth is hard to pin down. STORY HIGHLIGHTS International powers have agreed to resume nuclear talks with Tehran A top Iranian official says inspectors…
As Israel is threatening to attack Iran to halt its alleged pursuit of the bomb, the beating of the war-drums has become so loud that, to avoid hearing them, you would need to hide inside a cave in Africa. And then put in earplugs. The noise is so loud that…
The reason that there’s no plausible end-game in Syria anytime soon — and that thousands more Syrians may be fated to die before the conflict is ended — is that the Assad regime is fighting a very different war to the one envisaged by many of its opponents. For Arab and…
Actress Golshifteh Farahani attends the ‘Poulet Aux Prunes’ premiere during the 68th Venice Film Festival at Palazzo del Cinema on September 3, 2011 in Venice, Italy. (Getty) While the Iranian government may not be the biggest fan of native actress Golshifteh Farahani after her skin-baring photo shoot for Le Madame Figaro and for appearing…
– A convoy of hearses left the cemetery in Thessaloniki, Greece and made its way to the government’s nearby regional headquarters. To the relief of the civil servants watching from the windows, the vehicles were empty – except for the drivers, who arrived en masse to protest a recent tax hike. Hearse costs…
An undated photo released by Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency claims to show Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, who was killed by a car bomb in Tehran on Wednesday, Fars News Agency / AP Pho Circumstantial evidence suggests the Mossad is responsible for a string of slayings of Iran’s nuclear experts, most recently Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan. At…
Our prime minister has suddenly reached elevated status in Western capitals. Not so long ago, the same voices were accusing Recep Tayyip Erdogan an of changing Turkey’s orientation, of aspiring to establish an Islamic Republic. Now they are applauding him. Why? What happened to turn the tides so dramatically? What we have been witnessing over…
What’s at stake in Syria goes well beyond the mere fate of a local dictatorship – however deadly it may be. What is at stake, and is on the brink of collapse, is a major strategic alliance in the Middle East. The Syrians who have been challenging Bashar al-Assad’s regime since March – many paying…