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Margot Patterson
Analysis
As U.S.-Iran tensions escalate, is any room left for negotiations?
A year after the United States' withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, analysts say Iran is taking retaliatory steps to show that the U.S. economic war on the country will not be cost-free and to gain leverage for any new negotiations between it and the Trump administration.
The last monk of Tibhirine: 'God drove that history'
There are no ghosts at the Notre Dame de L'Atlas Monastery in Midelt, Morocco, but there are memories. It is in this city in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains where the two Trappist monks who survived the massacre of their community in Tibhirine, Algeria, re-established their community.
Commentary
Fordham University falters in trying to avoid controversy
Commentary: All Americans cherish free speech in principle — not so much in practice, and perhaps particularly not when the subject is Palestine
Iraqi refugees stuck in transit
AMMAN, JORDAN -- For almost five years now, Ekram Muqdad Aboes has lived in Jordan, scratching out a living as best he can. A photographer, cameraman, graphic designer and actor, the 25-year-old Iraqi refugee left his home in the city of Nainawa in northern Iraq when his 15-year-old brother and 13-year-old sister were murdered after they telephoned the U.S. Army to report seeing a bomb.
His parents are internal refugees inside Iraq, and Aboes said he doesn’t have their telephone number and hasn’t spoken to them for a year. In Jordan, as in most host countries, refugees have few opportunities for legal employment. Aboes has a part-time job at a TV station. It helps, but not enough; he’s taken out loans from neighbors and friends.
Grateful for the safe haven Jordan has offered him, Aboes says he dreams of moving to America. Returning to Iraq is out of the question: “The threat is greater than nostalgia,” he said. He applied for a visa to go to the United States when he came to Jordan. Five years later he’s still waiting for a response.