Syria

Radwan Zyada | – (Middle East Monitor) – Russian President Putin made a surprise visit to Damascus [on January 7], during which he met Bashar Al-Assad, not at the Rawda Palace or the People’s Palace, where the latter customarily receives his guests, but rather at the headquarters of the Russian forces in Damascus. This is […]

Libya

Syria, Yemen, Libya: For the First Time since Versailles, will Rival Powers redraw the Middle East’s Borders?

Middle East Monitor

By Muhammad Hussein | – This New Year will mark a century since the historic Treaty of Versailles was put into effect, creating the borders of much of the contemporary world and enabling the European colonial powers to seize the Middle Eastern territories of the defunct Ottoman Empire. The consequences of that treaty and other […]

Featured

The Great Turko-Russian World War for the Middle East: From Syria’s Idlib to Libya’s Tripoli

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The campaign to retake parts of Idlib province in northwest Syria by the Russian Aeronspace Forces and the Damascus government of Bashar al-Assad picked back up on Saturday. Two days of cloudy, foggy weather had grounded the Russian Su-24 jet bombers, but yesterday saw clear skies. The Syrian Arab Army […]

Donald Trump

Is Trump playing Impeachment Politics by Slamming Putin for Offensive in Syria’s Idlib?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Kevin Liptak at CNN reports that Trump on Thursday tweeted on the Idlib campaign of the current Syrian government and its Russian backer. Trump said, “Russia, Syria, and Iran are killing, or on their way to killing, thousands of innocent civilians in Idlib Province,” he tweeted. “Don’t do it! Turkey […]

Assyrians

A Subdued Christmas for Middle Eastern Christians amid New Wave of Popular Protests

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Chaldean Christians in Iraq have been asked by their Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, to hold subdued private Christmas ceremonies this year to honor the over 500 Iraqi protesters who have been killed by government security and paramilitary security forces. Public celebrations have been canceled. The Iraqi street crowds want an […]

Featured

At NATO, Trump irrelevant as France’s Macron Confronts Turkey on Invasion of Syrian Kurds

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The 70th anniversary of NATO was commemorated with a low-key meeting rather than a summit and was not the united show of success hoped for by Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, reports Al Jazeera. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan made waves. And a CBC camera crew caught some NATO leaders, including Canada’s Justin […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis, Not Conflict, Drove Many Syrian Refugees from their Homes

The Conversation

By Hussein A. Amery | – People who fled Syria in recent years are often viewed as war refugees because of the violence that has engulfed much of the country since 2011. But those from the northern and northeastern parts of Syria may more accurately be viewed as climate refugees, fleeing not a worsening conflict […]

Displaced and Refugees

Syrian Kurds, abandoned by Trump, Face War Crimes, Ethnic Cleansing at Hands of Turkey’s Fundamentalist Proxies

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Human Rights Watch reports that the fundamentalist Arab fighters Turkey brought with it to the Kurdish regions of northeast Iraq are guilty of war crimes. In the area Turkey has militarily occupied, which it is pleased to call a “safe zone,” the Arab fighters stand accused of shooting down civilian […]

Donald Trump

No, Russia isn’t taking over the Middle East from the US

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – There has been a lot of talk of Russian reassertion in the Middle East and angst (except in Donald Trump) about a deterioration of the US position there. Neither of these propositions, of a Russian assertion or a US decline, is supported by much evidence. And a US disengagement from […]