By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The pan-Arab daily al-Hayat (Life) summarized Russian sources on Thursday’s speech by Russian president Vladimir Putin: Putin made several points: 1. Russia hopes that the ceasefire and Geneva peace negotiations can now go forward relatively smoothly toward a political settlement in Syria 2. Russia will continue […]
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Arab World
Putin’s Syria Gambit: Surprising Views of Russian Pundits on What Moscow Achieved
By Robert Coalson | ( RFE/RL ) | – – As Russian warplanes continued their partial withdrawal from Syria two days after President Vladimir Putin unexpectedly announced that Moscow's objectives in the country had been "generally accomplished," observers debated how the move changes the situation in the volatile region. Russian analysts are divided on what […]
Syria’s Kurds to declare Federal Province
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Syria’s Kurds have decided to declare a federal province in the northeast of the country and along the northern border with Turkey. Many Arab states are unitary rather than federal and for the most part provincial governors are appointed by the central government and the central […]
Forgetting Tahrir: The Man on Horseback and the fate of Egypt’s Revolution
Neil Serougi | ( OpenDemocracy ) | – – Why would a country that showed itself so courageous in confronting Mubarak’s repression now be content to sacrifice its hard won gains, and accept a regime that has gone far further? KimBadawi/Getty Images. All rights reserved.What became of the Arab Spring? The heady optimism that saw […]
Why is Putin Really withdrawing from Syria?
By Alexander Titov | (The Conversation) | – – Back in September 30 2015, when Vladimir Putin unexpectedly announced the deployment of the Russian air force in Syria, the consensus was that this would prove to be a costly mistake. Critics argued that airstrikes alone would not make any tangible difference to the facts on […]
Mystery: Russia & Hizbullah begin withdrawal from Syria
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – al-Hayat [Life], the London pan-Arab daily, reports on the announcement Monday by Russian President Vladimir Putin that he would begin withdrawing the greater part of Russian men and equipment from Syria. Al-Hayat is careful to note that Putin says that the Russian naval base at Tartus […]
And the Best Teacher in the World is . . . a Palestinian
Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A Palestinian teacher from the occupied West Bank on Sunday won the Varkey Foundation’s 2016 Global Teacher’s Prize “for her work educating children in Palestine.” Hanan al-Hroub, from Duheisha refugee camp in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem, was announced the winner of the […]
Syria: More US Weaponry goes to al-Qaeda
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – al-Akhbar (Beirut) reports that al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Levant, also known as the Support Front (jabhat al-Nusra), repeated scenarios it had previously acted out against other “moderate” remnants of the old Free Syrian Army. It launched a massive attack on the headquarters of Division […]
Winners and Losers in 5 Years of Syrian Civil War
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Five years ago this week, protests began in Damascus and Deraa (mainly Deraa) in Syria, on the heels of the overthrow of dictators in Tunisia and Egypt. Syria’s government was even more repressive than those of the other two countries, however, much more of a Stalinist […]
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