Europe

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a campaign event on Wednesday evening, that there is no relationship between the influx of some one million migrants and refugees into Germany in the past year and the incidents of radical Muslim violence in the country. She pointed out […]

Central Asia

Dragon Rising? China seeks Closer military Cooperation with Syria

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | Informed Comment | – – The Arabic press is reporting that a high Chinese official on a visit to Damascus has announced that Beijing intends to strengthen its military relationship with the current Syrian government. At the same time he affirmed that China would avoid involvement in the civil war. Reuters […]

Featured

Does this Change Everything? Russia’s first strikes on Syria from Iran Airbases

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Russian bombers for the first time have taken off from bases in Iran to carry out air strikes on rebel targets in Syria. The US military is complaining that under a Russian agreement with the US, it was supposed to get a timely notification of Russia […]

Bashar al-Assad

Monsters to Destroy: Top 7 Reasons the US could not have forestalled Syrian Civil War

Juan Cole

by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The interventionist temptation, muted since the Iraq imbroglio, is now returning. Sec. Clinton’s team are already talking about taking steps to remove Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad from office as soon as they get into the White House. An excellent and principled NYT columnist called the non-intervention […]

Russia

Will Syria Issue derail Turkey-Russia Rapprochement?

contributors

By Abbas Djavadi | ( RFE/RL ) | – – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan travels to St. Petersburg on August 9 to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. They will focus on improving cooperation in two main areas: the effort to find a shared and joint solution to the Syria crisis, and in business […]

Featured

Islamophobia Kills: German Munich shooter admired Breivik, Killed Turks

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The shooter at a Munich mall last week who killed 9 and left 27 wounded was an admirer of far right wing Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, and appears to have hated Muslims. Although David Sonboly was of Iranian heritage, he does not seem to have […]

Featured

Nice, France, Attack: A Gandhian Response to Serial Killers

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve has extended the French state of emergency, which suspends key civil and human rights, in the aftermath of the gruesome truck attack on Bastille Day in Nice, which at this writing has left 80 dead and over a dozen in intensive […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Kerry Proposing Joint US-Russian Airstrikes against Extremists in Syria

contributors

TeleSur | – – According to a leaked U.S. plan, Washington and Moscow would merge their respective air campaigns against non-state armed groups in Syria. The United States will propose increasing military cooperation and sharing intelligence with Russia to identify and target Islamic State group and al-Qaida headquarters, training camps and supply routes in Syria, […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syrian Troops foil al-Qaeda riposte in Aleppo as France warns al-Qaeda could replace ISIL

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Even as the Syrian army defeated a counter-offensive by al-Qaeda in Syria and its battlefield allies at Aleppo, French President Francois Hollande warned that al-Qaeda should not be allowed to replace the declining Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) in Syria. On Saturday and Sunday, al-Qaeda (the Nusra Front) […]