Al Mayadeen English (AWIP)
Al Mayadeen English

A man walks away after watching a black plume of smoke
rising from a warehouse in the industrial area of Sharjah
City, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, March 1, 2026, fol-
lowing reports of Iranian strikes in Dubai (© AP Photo)

Drone strikes on Amazon data centres in the UAE and Bahrain have exposed the vulnerability of US tech infrastructure in the Gulf, and threatened the region's AI ambitions.

The drone strikes that knocked Amazon Web Services facilities offline in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain this week were not random acts of escalation. They were, according to analysts and industry insiders, a calculated strike on infrastructure that the United States has quietly woven into its military architecture across West Asia.

Amazon and Google hold a $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government to provide cloud computing and artificial intelligence services to entities, including the Israeli occupation forces.

That contract, largely absent from Western coverage of the strikes, may explain why AWS facilities, and not the dozens of data centers operated by local Gulf companies on behalf of US tech giants, were the ones that were hit.

"It would be easier to target AWS," Ed Galvin, founder of data center research firm DC Byte, told Bloomberg, noting that other US tech services are typically housed within locally operated facilities, making them harder to identify and strike. Of approximately 230 data centers built or under development across Gulf Arab states, only a handful are wholly owned and operated by a US company, according to DC Byte. All three struck this week belong to Amazon.

Al Mayadeen English (awip)
Al Mayadeen English

America first, int'l law last: From Gaza to Ukraine, Trump’s foreign policy accelerates the erosion of global norms, weakening multilateral institutions and normalizing power over law.

In an analysis by Patrick Wintour, The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, the present moment is framed as one of historical suspension, echoing Philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s warning that periods between orders are defined by uncertainty and heightened consequence. In such times, Wintour suggests, even modest political choices can reshape the global landscape.

Writing against the backdrop of 2025, Wintour argues that many Western leaders now see the post–Second World War system of international relations as faltering. The rules-based order that the US helped build after 1945, he notes, is facing a deep crisis of legitimacy, as legal norms and institutions struggle to command authority in an increasingly fragmented world.

In Wintour's view, there was no shortage of advance notice about the damage Donald Trump would inflict on that global framework.

In February, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out the rupture in stark terms during his Senate confirmation hearing. “The postwar global order is not just obsolete, it is now a weapon being used against us,” he said. “And all this has led us to a moment in which we must now confront the single greatest risk of geopolitical instability and generational global crisis in the lifetime of anyone alive here today.”

Rubio argued that the rules-based order rested on a flawed belief that national interests could be subordinated to a “liberal world order” in which all nations would converge into a Western-led democratic community. Humanity, he said, had been told it was destined to abandon national identity and become “one human family and citizens of the world.” “This was not just a fantasy,” Rubio added. “We now know it was a dangerous delusion.”

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

The future of their strategic partnership is bright, but in order to fully appreciate its prospects, observers must acknowledge its non-military nature instead of continuing to fantasize about a joint war against Israel and/or the US like some are doing.

The Russian and Iranian presidents met in Moscow last Friday to sign an updated strategic partnership pact that can be read in full here and was reviewed here.

The run-up to this development was marked by predictable hype about it being a game-changer, which hasn’t subsided in the days since, but this is an inaccurate description of what they agreed to. The only way in which this might ring true is with regards to gas, not geopolitics, for the reasons that’ll now be explained.

To begin with, Russia and Iran already had close military-technical cooperation before they updated their strategic partnership last week as proven by the rumors of Russia relying on Iranian drones in Ukraine. They also agreed to revive the previously stillborn North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) shortly after the special operation began and the West imposed unprecedented sanctions against Moscow. Therefore, these parts of their updated strategic partnership aren’t anything new, they just aim to strengthen them.

About that, this agreement is fundamentally different from last summer’s Russian-North Korean one in that there aren’t any mutual defense obligations as clarified in Article 3. They only committed to not aid any aggression against the other, including assistance to the aggressor, and to help settle the subsequent conflict at the UN. That was already the case in their relations so explicitly clarifying it is redundant. Under no circumstances will Russia go to war against Israel and/or the US in support of Iran.

After all, “Russia Dodged A Bullet By Wisely Choosing Not To Ally With The Now-Defeated Resistance Axis” over the past 15 months as Israel single-handedly destroyed that Iranian-led regional network, so it naturally follows that it won’t risk World War III in defense of an even weaker Iran.

Robert Inlakesh
Al Mayadeen English

The official “Israelarabic” social media accounts belonging to the Zionist regime is openly publishing content that reflects its expansionist endeavors, one such post included a historical representation of “Judah and Israel” (Image: Ali Al-Hadi Shmeis)

The Israeli regime is expanding its territorial control into neighboring Arab nations, exploiting regional weaknesses, demonstrating that only sustained resistance can counter its expansionist ambitions.

Emboldened by a string of achievements, the Israeli regime is seeking to expand its territorial control into neighboring Arab Nations and is receiving little push back. While Jordan and Egypt aren’t currently facing an armed incursion, Israeli ministers and official social media pages are indicating that such takeovers could be in the books.

Upon the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria, the power vacuum left behind and a lack of any army to protect the nation permitted an immediate Israeli invasion. The Zionist Entity swiftly launched their largest ever air campaign to obliterate the Syrian Arab Army’s military equipment, then followed this up with on-and-off airstrikes throughout the country.

The Israelis have occupied the Golan Heights entirely, seized the six most important water sources in southern Syria, expelled citizens from their homes in areas surrounding Quneitra and even pushed towards Dara’a. The Israeli tanks are now positioned as far as areas like Qatana, only 20 kilometers from Damascus, while airstrikes occasionally hit targets in the Syrian Capital.

This invasion of Syria has been ongoing for over a month now and not a single bullet has been fired by forces affiliated with the new Hayat Tahrir al-Sham led government. Instead, those installed in power in Damascus have hinted at normalization with the Zionist regime, with the newly selected Mayor of Damascus, Maher Marwan, openly making excuses for the Israeli invasion and suggesting normalizing ties.

The takeaway from this is not to just single out the new Syrian leadership and its positions, but to demonstrate that weakness and collaboration with the Zionists, no matter who it is, results in territorial losses to the detriment of the population of any Arab nation.

Dmitri Kovalevich
Al Mayadeen English

The battle for Ugledar, as well as the earlier battles for the cities of Bakhmut, Avdeevka, and Mariupol, show just the opposite of the claims by Zelensky and his political/military government, namely that for the AFU, buildings and even ruins are more important than human beings in uniform.

At the beginning of October, the development most discussed by the Ukraine government and its tightly controlled media was the defeat and withdrawal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) from the small city of Ugledar (called 'Vuhledar' in Ukraine) in the Donbas region. The chaotic and costly withdrawal (for Ukraine) is the result of Kiev's refusal to withdraw as the city was being encircled by Russian forces. This is not the first time this has happened.

Russian troops waited for evacuations of the remaining 116 civilians in Ugledar before entering and retaking the city on October 2. These were civilians who had been living in basements under shelling for the past two and a half years, refusing to be evacuated. The small city had a pre-war population of 14,000.

Ugledar is a former coal mining city some 50 km southwest of Donetsk city. Since being seized and occupied by far-right Ukrainian paramilitaries in 2014, it has been used by the AFU to regularly shell Donetsk city and neighboring cities and towns, causing countless civilian deaths, injuries, and property damage. Numerous towns and cities of the former Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk (which constitute the historic coal mining and steelmaking region of Donbas) were seized by the paramilitaries in 2014 and after, and have been used in this manner to terrorize the populations there. They resisted the illegal coup of 2014 in Kyiv. Today, Donetsk and Lugansk are constituent republics of the Russian Federation, following several referendum votes that have taken place there.

Robert Inlakesh
Al Mayadeen English

The lie of Western diversity and inclusion doesn’t work while committing genocide

While Donald Trump is a monster in his own right, his platform is more honest and ideologically consistent. Kamala Harris’s campaign was a bundle of contradictions and gaslighting statements, using celebrities to drag the dead corpse of the Democratic Party campaign across the finish line.

Now that the dust seems to have settled following the US elections, a critical look at Washington’s foreign policy under the Democratic Party administration is in need. While it is clear that the genocide in Gaza was not a primary issue for most American voters, the issue was of central importance in undermining the Harris campaign.

The landslide victory for Donald Trump in the American elections clearly inflicted a psychological blow on supporters of the Democratic Party. Immediately after the results were in, social media was ripe with commentary from angry Democratic Party supporters who sought to blame every single minority group under the sun. Allegations were made against Black men, Latinos, Arabs, Muslims, and even Native Americans, who had death wishes placed upon them and were racially abused on a grand scale.

Meanwhile, CNN, MSNBC, and other mainstream US broadcast media outlets were floating a million ideas as to why their favored candidate did not win the election. Some commentators even ridiculously argued that Kamala Harris was not pro-"Israel" or pro-Ukraine enough.

While the failures of the Harris campaign were numerous, the particular effect of the Democratic Party’s foreign policy approach, coupled with their reliance on Identity Politics, is not receiving the very relevant coverage it deserves.

Lea Akil
Al Mayadeen English

How did Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah become an enduring symbol of sacrifice and resilience?

We grew up listening to his voice. We grew up watching him. We used to impatiently wait for him and his speeches... we're still waiting.

As I write these lines I'm reminded of a quote by Che Guevara, who said "Let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality."

Forty days have passed since the martyrdom of Hezbollah's Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, a man who was a symbol of hope, sacrifice, resilience, and resistance, but more profoundly, he embodied love—because what is resistance and sacrifice if not the deepest form of love?

To grasp the magnitude of what this man sacrificed, what many before him have sacrificed, and what countless others will continue to sacrifice, you must understand the essence of love: love for your land, your people, your sovereignty, and your dignity. It is through this that we can redefine and grasp true patriotism.

They attempted to silence him with 83 tons of US-made bombs, to extinguish the resolve of the Resistance, and pave the way for their hopes of ending Hezbollah. But his martyrdom achieved the opposite because the resistance remains resilient, grew in fervor, and he remains present.

Timo Al-Farooq
Al Mayadeen English

Image: Chancellor Olaf Scholz backed Baerbock’s banality-of-evil-like support for "Israel’s" right to mass-murder Palestinian civilians when he renewed his pledge to keep Germany’s arms-industry-to-genocide pipeline open for business. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab El-Hajj)

The German government’s renewed pledges to keep on aiding and abetting "Israel’s" war of extermination in Gaza are yet another stain on the moral track record of a nation whose superlative blood-stained history is currently being rivaled by "Israel".

There seems to be an appalling pattern to the German government’s "pro-Israel" foreign policy: The more intense the Netanyahu regime’s genocidal war against Gaza becomes and the louder global condemnation grows, the deeper Berlin burrows itself on the wrong side of history by doubling down on its diplomatic cover for "Israel’s" endless string of atrocity crimes and quelling any opposition to Germany’s vicious Staatsräson of wilfully being an apartheid entity’s servile lackey.

We have witnessed this diabolic correlation from the start of "Israel’s" ongoing campaign of extermination, with Germany hindering every attempt at accountability by coming to the Zionist regime’s rescue at international forums and brutalizing with ever-increasing viciousness the anti-war protest movement that has been taking to the streets and social media for the past year.

And we continue to see the full extent of German recalcitrance and sycophancy as "Israel" expands its Western-backed imperial war beyond the borders of historic Palestine into Lebanon and expedites its Naziesque "Final Solution" in northern Gaza, described by Palestine’s deputy permanent observer to the UN as "a genocide within a genocide."

As the horrific images of displaced people burning to death in their makeshift tents after "Israel" bombed the Al-Aqsa hospital compound in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah shocked people across the world, Germany remained not only utterly unfazed by the horrors of yet another indescribable massacre perpetrated by the blood-thirsty Zionist war machine, but actively defended what Spanish MP and leader of the left-wing party Podemos, Ione Belarra, likened to Nazi gas chambers.

Karim Charara
Al Mayadeen English

We didn’t get the chance to talk to you during your lifetime, but perhaps these words can reach you now.

We could be anyone, a boy or girl, man or woman, young or old, Christian or Muslim, religious or agnostic…It doesn't really matter. We’re the millions whose lives you’ve impacted, here to say a few words to you.

Where to start?…Maybe somewhere near the beginning?

Many perhaps didn’t take you seriously at first, after all, yours was still somewhat a movement that hadn’t yet proven itself against the Israelis, and you were... what? 31? when you became the leader of the Resistance? Even though you were against handling such a great task, you shouldered it when it was thrust upon you, placing your complete trust in God so that he’d aid you in your endeavor.

That in and of itself was a lesson you taught us; us who are scrounging for answers in these dark times; us who are so used to looking to you for answers…

It was a hard few years for you, that we know. Between the Israeli occupation and its collaborators planted everywhere, the torture your fighters and people had to endure in prison, and the overwhelming disparity between your capabilities and those of the Israelis, you sacrificed a lot for our wellbeing, including your son, who was martyred on this very path.

Still, you stood strong, until you gifted us with liberation. Even then, you called it an achievement of the Lebanese people, and didn’t think to capitalize on it for political gain for one second.

Marion Kawas
Al Mayadeen English

Each new atrocity in Gaza brought forth performative and useless expressions of concern from Western leaders and most Arab regimes, often coined as a “global outcry”.

Two months into the Gaza genocide, I wrote an article about why I hated the cruel ideology of Zionism and everything it had done to the Palestinian people.

At that point, most activists could not imagine that this genocide would now be close to reaching its first anniversary and that almost one year on, we would still be seeing the images of headless children, bodies draped off the edges of buildings, and humiliated and tortured detainees proudly displayed by their captors.

Each new atrocity brought forth performative and useless expressions of concern from Western leaders and most Arab regimes, often coined as a “global outcry”. With the tent massacre in Rafah, we thought that surely the world would now intervene to stop this, and then again with the horrific revelations from Sde Teiman prison and the defense of such by many Israeli legislators. But we were wrong:

This new phase of openly dispossessing and crushing Palestinians continues unabated. It not only continues but also brings new levels of destruction as in this week’s al-Mawasi massacre where two-ton US-made bombs obliterated humble tents and everything and everyone they housed. Over and over again, the grief and rage of Palestinians also grow in ways that will impact generations to come.