Arab World

By Sally Sharif, University of British Columbia (The Conversation) – Syria’s rebel leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has defended his decision to fill his cabinet with wartime loyalists and delay constitutional and electoral processes, describing these moves as pragmatic necessities for the country’s fragile transition. At the same time, he has called for the disarmament of all […]

Displaced and Refugees

“The Lion has Fallen:” The End of Syria’s Brutal Regime and the Fate of the Refugees

Tomdispatch

By Helen Benedict ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Six years ago, at the time of the first Trump administration’s Muslim ban and its initial round of vicious anti-immigrant policies, I visited a refugee camp on the Greek island of Samos to see how Europe was handling its own immigrants and refugees. Within a day, I met […]

Donald Trump

“People Will Die”: The Trump Administration Said It Lifted Its Ban on Lifesaving Humanitarian Aid in Sudan, Yemen, etc. That’s Not True

ProPublica

By Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry-Jester | – ( ProPublica ) – On Friday morning, the staffers at a half dozen U.S.-funded medical facilities in Sudan who care for severely malnourished children had a choice to make: Defy President Donald Trump’s order to immediately stop their operations or let up to 100 babies and […]

Houthi

Red Sea Crisis: Supply Chain Issues set to Continue Despite Gaza Ceasefire

The Conversation

By Gokcay Balci, University of Leeds | (The Conversation) – The world’s major shipping companies say they won’t be sending vessels back to the Red Sea any time soon despite a pledge by Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen not to attack them as long as the ceasefire in Gaza holds. French shipping and logistics company […]

Donald Trump

Memo to Trump: How Dumping 2.2 Million more Palestinians on Jordan would Destabilize the Middle East even More than the Iraq War Did

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – First, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet proposed ethnically cleansing Gaza of its Palestinian inhabitants in the fall of 2023, following many years of such calls from the Israeli equivalent of neo-Nazis. Then last year Joe Biden and Antony Blinken, dissatisfied with merely enabling an ongoing Israeli genocide, […]

Arab Spring

As Syria ponders a democratic future: 5 lessons from the Arab Spring

The Conversation

By Robert Kubinec, University of South Carolina (The Conversation) – The fall of Bashar Assad’s dictatorship in December 2024 has ushered in a nerve-wracking time of hope and fear for Syrians concerning future governance in the long-war-torn country. While it’s unclear what exact political path Syria will take, the dilemmas the country faces are similar […]

Arab Spring

14 Years after the Arab Spring Youth Revolution in Egypt, the Problems that provoked it are Even Worse

Marc Martorell Junyent

Rusha Latif, author of Tahrir’s Youth: “The problems and grievances that drove the 2011 Egyptian revolution remain and are much worse today” Munich, Germany (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) — Born in the United States to Egyptian parents, Rusha Latif is an independent researcher based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is also the […]

Syria

Syria after Assad: A fresh Chance for inclusive Governance and Power-Sharing, or more of the Same?

The Conversation

By Allison McCulloch, Brandon University and Dr. Sören Keil, University of Passau (The Conversation) – The end of a half-century of Assad family rule in Syria marked a turning point in the country’s deadly 13-year civil war after rebel forces led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) conquered Damascus. A peace resolution for Syria was long […]

Salafis

Syria’s New Government is already Oppressing Women, Posing a dire Threat to their Future

The Conversation

By Vrinda Narain, McGill University and Fatemeh Sadeghi, UCL (The Conversation) – As the international community celebrates the fall of another dictatorship following the collapse of Syria’s Assad regime, the future of women’s rights remains precarious. Global leaders are commending Syria’s liberation and discussing the return of 5.5 million refugees, but women’s rights advocates are […]