Arab World

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In a sign of China’s increasingly powerful role in Central Asia and the Middle East, on Tuesday a Chinese train arrived in Tehran after a 14-day journey. The freight train just used existing rail links to go from China to Kazakhstan, then to Uzbekistan, then Turkmenistan, […]

Russia

Syria: Instead of a Cease-Fire, have Great Powers unleashed new Proxy Wars?

contributors

By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Service) | – – MADRID (IPS) – – When 25 million Syrians–half of them refugees abroad or at home and the other half terrorised by daily bombing, learnt that major world leaders in their meeting in Germany launched an unprecedented confrontation threatening with unleashing World War III, instead of […]

Iraq

Confirmed: ISIL used Mustard Gas Against Kurds in Iraq

contributors

TeleSur | – – A chemical weapons investigator confirmed earlier reports that the extremist group used the banned chemical weapon. [ISIL] used chemical weapons against Kurdish militants last year, Reuters reported Monday. The August 2015 attack occurred near Erbil, the capital of autonomous Kurdish Iraq. About 35 Kurdish troops were attacked with mustard gas, according […]

Kurds

Has the Turkish-Saudi direct Military Intervention in Syria Begun?

Neil Thompson

London (Informed Comment) – The news that Turkey has begun military strikes against the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) militia inside Syria marks an ominous chapter in that country’s civil war. Turkey acted after YPG forces and allied units from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) seized the strategic Mennagh Military Airport in northern Aleppo […]

Palestine

Palestinian Refugees in Syria, besieged by ISIL, receive critical UN Aid at Last amid Faltering Ceasefire

contributors

TeleSur | – – Humanitarian aid has reached refugees in the Syrian town of Yarmouk, on the outskirts of Damascus, for the first time in nine months, according to UNRWA, the U.N. Agency for Palestine refugees. In a statement released Saturday night, UNRWA spokesperson Christopher Gunness said the agency "did not enter the camp itself" but reached the nearby […]

Russia

Russia Says World in ‘New Cold War’ over Syria

contributors

TeleSur | – – "Sometimes I wonder if it’s 2016 or if we live in 1962," Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told the Munich Security Conference, Saturday. The world has sunk into a “new Cold War” as a result of the mounting tensions between Russia and the West over conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry […]

Central Intelligence Agency

Despite Syria Cease Fire, Belligerents Plot military Victory

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Despite the announcement at Munich of a cessation of hostilities in Syria, to be implemented in the next week or so, all the major fighting forces in Syria have announced a determination to soldier on. According to the London pan-Arab daily al-Hayat [Life] , Russian foreign […]

Arab Spring

Despite Risks, Egypt’s Cartoonists Take on increasingly Authoritarian Regime of al-Sisi

contributors

By Mohamed Hassan | ( Global Voices ) | – – Cartoonist Islam Gawish. Photograph from his Facebook page. Photograph by Mostafa Darwish. Less than two weeks after the fifth anniversary of the January 25 revolution, Egypt is not showing any signs of improvement in its treatment of human rights advocates. On the evening of […]

Russia

The Costs That Come With Russia’s Gains In Syria

contributors

Charles Recknagel | ( RFE/RL | – – With Russia's monthslong air campaign in Syria now focused on a key rebel stronghold, Moscow can claim success in putting its stamp on the conflict and strengthening the hand of its ally, President Bashar al-Assad. Concentrated on the northern province of Aleppo, the bombing campaign launched in […]