AboutArticles by Michael Jansen

US bid to destroy Syria is a recipe for disaster

14 Jun 2020

Decision-makers in Washington design policies for the Eastern Arab World on a country-by-country basis and all too clearly do not take into consideration the consequences for neighbours and the wider...

The call for change

11 Jun 2020

George Floyd’s life followed the trajectory of many slain black men but his death has launched a revolution. His 6-year-old daughter Gianna, who used to ride sky high on his shoulders,...

Why coronavirus cases in Iran have increased

07 Jun 2020

Coronavirus cases have spiked in Iran, raising fears of a second wave of infections in the region’s epicentre and threatening to spread not only to the Eastern Arab World but...

Facing a health crisis

04 Jun 2020

Donald Trump is systematically destroying the post-World War II global order by withdrawing the US from international treaties, agreements, and organisations. His latest outrage is to postpone until September the...

Racism, a 400-year-old virus infecting America

01 Jun 2020

It is fitting that the white US police officer charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter of an African-American in Minneapolis bears the French family name of Chauvin. The name has...

The dangers of annexation

29 May 2020

During the formation of Israel’s “national unity” coalition the sole issue under negotiation was Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s plan to annex illegal colonies in the occupied West Bank and Jordan...

Iran, Lebanon plagued by virus, sectarianism

25 May 2020

The Covid-19 shared experience of Iran and Lebanon should serve as a warning to countries which have not prepared properly for a staged reopening of popular and public lockdown and...

Unprecedented times

22 May 2020

For the first time in the 1400 year history of the Faith, Islam’s three holiest mosques in Makkah, Medina, and al-Quds have been closed for Ramadan and public prayers are set...

Pandemic calls for a humane US approach

17 May 2020

The use of punitive sanctions to exert “maximum pressure” on Iran to capitulate to Trump administration demands has failed miserably. Iran not only refuses to renegotiate the 2015 nuclear deal...

Misdeeds, lies and refusals

15 May 2020

Dissident writer George Packer has, once again, stirred controversy in the US by reverting to his contention that the US is a failed state. This, he argues in The Atlantic...

Michael Jansen

The author, a well-respected observer of Middle East affairs, has three books on the Arab-Israeli conflict.