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This is such a controversial topic. I saw a reference to it recently (was it possibly something that was brought up in the Bill Maher/Ben Affleck dust-up?) that pointed out that the practice is almost unheard of outside of central and northeastern Africa, with a few small pockets in Iraq and the Gulf.

In 2011 when Ben Ali decided to leave the country, Tunisia, went into an uproar. Corruption, Jobs and freedom of speech were some of the main reasons for this uproar. This article briefly touches on these 3 reasons.

Aaron David Miller says the two allies have drifted apart but still need each other for many reasons.

Aaron David Miller says the two allies have drifted apart but still need each other for many reasons.

Concerns that Israel will launch preventative air strikes against Iran are looming. As the nuclear deal approaches, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated, "the regime in Iran is dedicated to destroying Israel and Israel has the right and obligation to defend itself." However, it is unlikely that Israel ail strike Iran in the foreseeable future. Here are a few reasons why.

The UN is pushing for sanctions to put pressure on Libyan factions and militias to take part in political negotiations. These sanctions would target individual groups rather than the foreign backers involved in the proxy war and would freeze their assets and impose travel bans. US officials have introduced the possibility of using their own sanctions separate from the UN for a few reasons: UN sanctions move slowly if not at all, Washington could impose them whenever they wish. The US places more emphasis on the importance on external actors in the conflict than domestic groups, explaining that these countries are actually intensifying the conflict. 

In Egypt there is a university which has been promoted as the ebst school in the Middle East. Except, it is very limited. It does not offer a reason to develop analytical skills, so often their students do poorly in the job world. in Egypt students are assigned a major and classes based off of their grades, they do not get to pursue what they want. 

This article, written by Joana Saba, talks about Aya Tarek's life and explores her reasons for becoming a part of the art scene in Egypt. While Tarek did not originally consider herself (or her art) a part of the revolution, she discuss how her ideas of politics has changed and how it can be as simple as "walking down the street."

This article basically lays out the faults in US intervention in Libya during the fall of Gaddafi and condemns the US officials for their lack of hindsight in their agenda. The US claimed that they could not "turn a blind eye" to atrocities and human right violations in other countries and to intervene in Libya was a matter of upholding "universal values." After the successful ousting of Gaddafi, the US hypocritically turned their back on the country as a whole, leaving them to pick up the pieces and re-build themselves in the midst of socio-political and economic chaos. The US claims that military intervention is sometimes necessary to address human right violations, but in the case of Libya more violations have occurred as a result of a fallen regime rather than because of its reign. The author basically says that the US should have predicted that short-term intervention strategies achieves nothing without years of sustained support for rebuilding the civil institutions. 

A terribly interesting article--these are in many ways the reasons I choose not to focus on Israel and Palestine; it's so, so difficult to negotiate the discourses and feelings tangled up in this conflict.

Syria's allies, Russia, Iran, and China, all stand by them despite western powers opposing the Syrian government. There are different reasons to why these powers seem to stay with Syria such as Russia's ideologies, Iran's strategy, or China's trading. Either way, these government will stand by them until there is nothing left to lose. 

"President Obama said that he and other world leaders have offered Iran an 'extraordinarily reasonable deal' that will test whether the leadership of the Islamic nation is serious about at last resolving the dispute over its nuclear program." If Iran verifies that they are not developing a weapons system, then there is a deal to be had. However, they have not said yes to any verifications or program constraints.

This video talks about the different groups in Libya who are fighting against each other. General Haftar is one of the major players in the attacks. He is against islamist groups and he says that he will never retreat until islamist groups back down. The main reason for the fighting is to gain as much power and economic gain as they can.

Russia is attempting to bring opposition groups and the Syrian government to Moscow in order to "talk peace." In the past, Russia has supported the Syrian President and because of this, opposition groups are wearing of these alleged "peace talks." 

"The Reasons for Sisi's Visit to the Western Military Zone." Article in Arabic on Egypt's airstrikes against ISIS in Libya.

Iran is developing a new cyberstrategy to protect against the intrusion of important government programs, and to oppose any anti-iranian cyber warfare and fight back. Under their new strategy they have already launched attacks on Saudi Arabia and companies in the U.S. such as Bank of America and Citigroup which gives the U.S. reason to concern on Iran's cyber warfare development.