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Issandr Amrani

@arabist.net
173 followers 230 following 72 posts

I write about politics, geopolitics, technology and culture, with particular focus on MENA. Recovering journalist and OG blogger at arabist.net; formerly at @open-society.bsky.social and @crisisgroup.org. Usual caveats apply.

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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 09/10/2026
Niger Wrestles with the Aftermath of a Military Revolt | International Crisis Group Good detailed overview of the recent coup attempt led by one of Niger’s special forces unit, and the strengthening of Niger’s relations with A... arabist.net/2026/10/09/niger-wrestl…
arabist.net
The Arabist
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 08/10/2026
The Morning the U.S. Bombed a School in Iran DropNews video on the massacre that marked the beginning of the war on Iran features interviews with many of the first responders and others on the scene.
dropsitenews.com
The Morning the U.S. Bombed a School in Iran
Parents, teachers, and first responders tell the story of what happened in Minab at the Shajareh Tayyebeh School massacre on the first day of the war.
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 11/09/2026
Daniel Levy on the UK’s decision to sanction Israeli settlements: Reflecting on the UK Labour government’s announcement of measures regarding Israel and what next
substack.com
Reflecting on the UK Labour government's announcement of measures regarding Israel and what next
On September 8th, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced to a packed House of Commons—with the Prime Minister and Cabinet seated next to him—that the UK would be enacting a series of measures in relation to Israeli illegal practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 25/06/2026
The Israeli Ultra-Hawks Who Feel Betrayed by Trump’s Iran Deal | The New Yorker: arabist.net/2026/06/25/the-israeli-…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 13/06/2026
Why China Hasn’t Helped the U.S. with Iran | International Crisis Group Because it sees the war as a strategic liability for the US from which it stands to benefit.
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 12/06/2026
Ian’s Is Still The Best Site For Tying Your Shoelaces This is what tears me apart about AI - with here Chris Person writing about a fantastic example, Ian’s Shoelace Site, which is both a wonderful relic of an earlier type of website (wi... arabist.net/2026/06/12/ians-is-stil…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 11/06/2026
Israel Set to Rapidly Expand West Bank Settlement Before elections later this year. Plus ça change….
nytimes.com
Israel Set to Rapidly Expand West Bank Settlement
By Isabel Kershner
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 11/06/2026
China and the Mediterranean | China Books Review: arabist.net/2026/06/11/china-and-th…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 11/06/2026
En Tunisie, les autorités coupent Internet pour éviter la triche au baccalauréat | Le Monde The Tunisian government has widely jammed or crippled the internet in the country to prevent cheating in high school exams. More staggering incompetence from Kaïs Saïd.
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 11/06/2026
A New Tone and Better Cards in Kyiv | International Crisis Group How Ukraine is emerging a winner out of the Iran war, at least in terms of establishing itself as an exporter of security to the Gulf: When Russia launched its full-scale in... arabist.net/2026/06/11/a-new-tone-a…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 11/06/2026
Saudi Economic Contraction: How MBS Debt-Led Growth Is Creating a Strategic Financial and Geopolitical Trap for Saudi | MENA Unleashed The International Monetary Fund concluded its 2026 Article IV mission to Riyadh this week w... arabist.net/2026/06/11/saudi-econom…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 10/06/2026
Congress Is Trying to Permanently Integrate U.S. and Israeli Defense Tech | The Intercept Critical reporting by Austin Campbell: Lawmakers and military experts told The Intercept that Section 224, named “United States-Israel D... arabist.net/2026/06/10/congress-is-…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 10/06/2026
Le Maroc élimine un haut responsable du Front Polisario | Le Monde Morocco carries out drone killing of Polisario leader near Western Sahara berm.
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 10/06/2026
Brussels Institute for Geopolitics – The ideological roots of MAGA’s anti-European offensive On three luminaries behind the national-conservatives' view of Europe. Interesting to see the Israeli link and the whiffs of “Eurabia”.
big-europe.eu
The ideological roots of MAGA’s anti-European offensive
European leaders are in disarray over the Trump administration’s rapidly eroding commitment to the transatlantic alliance. During the past year, the US government has slapped heavy tariffs on the...
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 10/06/2026
The State of the Strait: The Role of Hormuz in the Middle East War So Far | International Crisis Group Comprehensive explainer with quite useful graphics.
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 08/06/2026
Trump’s Defense Department Sees Growing Espionage Threat From Israel - The New York Times Tel Aviv upping spying on Witkoff and other top officials negotiating Iran talks.
nytimes.com
Pentagon Sees Growing Espionage Threat From Israel
By Julian E. Barnes and Eric Schmitt
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 08/06/2026
The Birds of Palestine (Arabic) – Shop Palestine Lovely poster available for sale to raise funds for the Middle East Children’s Alliance (via Kottke)
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 08/06/2026
Iran’s Care for Orphans Has Been Transformed by War - New Lines Magazine: arabist.net/2026/06/08/irans-care-f…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 08/06/2026
Unmaking the Middle East | Andrew Arsan | The New York Review of Books Review of Fawaz Gerges' two most recent books, What Really Went Wrong and The Great Betrayal: The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the Middle East.
nybooks.com
Unmaking the Middle East | Andrew Arsan
In two recent books the scholar and commentator Fawaz Gerges asks why the region remains a bastion of authoritarian government, prone to conflict and instability, instead of becoming an economic success story.
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 08/06/2026
The World Misunderstands the India–UAE Relationship - Gulf International Forum
gulfif.org
The World Misunderstands the India–UAE Relationship - Gulf International Forum
On May 15, India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed several key defense, energy, and shipping agreements during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s brief...
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 08/06/2026
The U.S. Needs Its Mideast Bases - WSJ It’s astonishing to see this kind of piece, by pro-war longtime neocons Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh, as if the US disbanding its Gulf bases is now in question: Whatever credibility Washingto... arabist.net/2026/06/08/the-us-needs…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 08/06/2026
If I Were Chuck Schumer | The New York Review of Books Joseph O’Neill, interviewed by Daniel Drake: "If I were Senator Schumer, I would take stock of the polls, which reveal an amazingly unpopular Democratic Party that is despised by i... arabist.net/2026/06/08/if-i-were-ch…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 08/06/2026
What Visual Evidence Tells Us About Israel’s Use of White Phosphorus in Lebanon - The New York Times
nytimes.com
What Visual Evidence Tells Us About Israel’s Use of White Phosphorus in Lebanon
By Sanjana Varghese
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 08/06/2026
Lessons from RightsCon Cancellation for Democracy Promotion Andrew Friedman and Tara L. Thwing, write here for Just Security on the recent cancellation of RightsCon, a major civil society and human rights gathering, by t... arabist.net/2026/06/08/lessons-from…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 04/06/2026
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu replay 1982 Beirut stand-off | FT Mehul Srivastava and Abigail Hauslohner on the parallels with Reagan and Begin: "As it battled the Palestine Liberation Organization, Israel had laid sie... arabist.net/2026/06/04/donald-trump…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 04/06/2026
L’artiste franco-iranienne Marjane Satrapi, autrice de la bande dessinée « Persepolis », est morte à l’âge de 56 ans Satrapi, author of the blockbuster graphic novel Persepolis, about growing up in the early yea... arabist.net/2026/06/04/lartiste-fra…
persepolis.jpg
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 04/06/2026
Iran’s New Grand Strategy | Foreign Affairs A fascinating essay by Narges Bajoghli and Vali Nasr argues that the last year of Iran-Israel-US war has fundamentally changed the way Iran is governed, putting nationalist technocrat... arabist.net/2026/06/04/irans-new-gr…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 31/05/2026
The World Capital of French Fries Has a Problem: Too Many Potatoes www.nytimes.com/2026/05/30/w... Good reporting on the Belgian potato crisis, including impact of Iran war on Middle East sales.
nytimes.com
The World Capital of French Fries Has a Problem: Too Many Potatoes
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 18/05/2026
“Strategic Balance” under Stress: Egypt and the U.S.-Israeli War with Iran | International Crisis Group "Since the U.S. and Israel set off their war with Iran, Egypt has been looking for an off-ramp. Cairo has used diplomat... arabist.net/2026/05/18/strategic-ba…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 18/05/2026
Jordan’s New Security Dilemma – Arab Reform Initiative Sean Yom: "Herein lies Jordan’s new security dilemma. Squeezed between Israeli expansionism and Iranian attacks, the Hashemite Kingdom faces unprecedented threats to its ... arabist.net/2026/05/18/jordans-new-…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 18/05/2026
Nancy Fraser, Gaza as World Event, NLR 158, March–April 2026
newleftreview.org
Nancy Fraser, Gaza as World Event, NLR 158, March–April 2026
The global reverberations of Israel’s destruction of Gaza, understood as world event—an epochal turning point which serves to reveal the changing nature of the times. Philosophical reflections on the rise of a new-era McCarthyism in Germany and the US.
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 18/05/2026
Drones Are Reshaping Sudan’s Civil War - New Lines Magazine "The United Nations reports that another 700 civilians have been killed by drones since the start of this year, which accounts for three-quarters of the total civilia... arabist.net/2026/05/18/drones-are-r…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 18/05/2026
Iran nuclear monitor: Month by month – European Council on Foreign Relations Visualization around risks of various scenarios for Iran’s nuclear weapons program – the most likely by far being “neither rebuilds nor negotiates”.
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 18/05/2026
Beyond Oil: The Gulf’s Hidden Supply Chains Some fascinating visualization of products beyond hydrocarbon and its derivatives affected by the Iranian-US blockade of the straits of Hormuz.
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 15/04/2026
Iran used Chinese spy satellite to target US bases "Iran secretly acquired a Chinese spy satellite that gave the Islamic republic a powerful new capability to target US military bases across the Middle East during the recent war... arabist.net/2026/04/15/iran-used-ch…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 14/04/2026
Opinion | Gaza’s Rubble Is the Grave of Its Future - The New York Times Gazan writer Ghada Abdelfattah: "It has been six months since the cease-fire was announced in Gaza, when the war was officially stopped. But it hasn’t stopped,... arabist.net/2026/04/14/opinion-gaza…
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Michael Hanna @mwhanna.crisisgroup.org · 17/03/2026
This is true but also a very problematic framing that has been adopted by too many. The issue isn’t simply a lack of strategy, it is a lack of justification for launching the war in the first place.
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 17/03/2026
Top US security official quits, says Iran did not pose immediate threat | Reuters You don’t say.
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 12/03/2026
If your congressperson votes any additional funding for this, don’t vote for them in the midterms. Let the Pentagon reallocate from its already wildly inflated and misspent budget.
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Boston Review @bostonreview.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
In Lebanon, Israel seems to be following the same logic it deployed in Gaza: emptying out entire areas through what amounts to ethnic cleansing. @joelleabirached.bsky.social writes from Beirut as bombs rain down once again:
bostonreview.net
Millenarian Fantasies
In Lebanon, Israel seems to be following the same logic it deployed in Gaza: emptying out entire areas through what amounts to ethnic cleansing.
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Andrew Exum @exum.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
This administration makes a lot of head-scratching decisions, but the non-decision to replenish the strategic oil reserve while prices were in the low $60s is one of the head-scratchingest when you think about who is in leadership positions on energy.
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Jewish Voice for Peace @jvp.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Less than a quarter of Americans support the US-Israeli war in Iran, but legacy Jewish establishment groups like the ADL, AIPAC, and the Jewish Federations are throwing their weight behind this unpopular war, and they’re falsely claiming to speak in the name of all American Jews while doing so.
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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Pope Leo XIV’s Vatican newspaper is the only publication in the Western world to run the photograph of 150 Iranian girls' graves — killed in President Trump's military strikes — on its front page.
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Reuters @reuters.com · 08/03/2026
Iran names Khamenei's son, Mojtaba, as new supreme leader, state media report reut.rs/4s0C4NZ
reut.rs
Iran names Khamenei's son, Mojtaba, as new supreme leader, state media report
Iran's Assembly ​of Experts has named ‌Mojtaba Khamenei to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as ​the country's new ​supreme leader, state media reported ⁠on Sunday.
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Abu Aardvark @abuaardvark.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
This whole story is so horrifying at so many levels. It should be a seismic scandal but it will probably barely make a ripple.
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Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Walid Khalidi, an exceptional Palestinian scholar and one of the most important memory-holders of Palestine has passed away.
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 06/03/2026
All the polls on the U.S. war in Iran so far G. Elliott Morris, writing on polls on US sentiment towards the Iran war in Strength in Numbers: "The big takeaway from these numbers is that the new war in Iran is very unpopular. Not merely n... arabist.net/2026/03/06/all-the-poll…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 06/03/2026
Qatar warns war will force Gulf to stop energy exports ‘within days’ Andrew England and Malcolm Moore, in the Financial Times: Qatar’s energy minister has warned that war in the Middle East could “bring down the economies of th... diary.arabist.net/2026/03/06/qatar-…
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Issandr Amrani @arabist.net · 03/03/2026
How much is this going to cost US taxpayers?
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