Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Turkey’s incursion into Syria has roiled the Middle East and NATO countries, demonstrating one key polarizing divide on both sides of the Mediterranean. That divide is between supporters of political Islam and its opponents. By political Islam I mean movements like the Muslim Brotherhood that make Islam more than a […]
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Syria
Is Trump’s Syria Policy about to Loose 12,000 ISIL Terrorists on the World?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Tessa Fox at Al Jazeera writes that Trump’s abrupt withdrawal of U.S. special operations forces from northern Syria in expectation of a Turkish invasion could throw the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia cultivated for the past four years by the US into confusion. Moreover, Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian Arab Army may […]
Trump decision to withdraw troops from Syria opens way for dangerous Middle East power play
By Tony Walker | – US President Donald Trump’s precipitate announcement he was withdrawing American forces from northeast Syria to enable Turkey to assert its authority along the border risks wider regional bloodshed – and further destabilisation of one of the world’s most volatile corners. If implemented against a furious pushback from his own side […]
Winners and Losers from Trump throwing Syrian Kurds under the Bus
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The reasons for which the Washington Establishment is appalled at Trump’s abrupt withdrawal of US special operations troops from northern Syria are not necessarily the right ones. Former special presidential envoy for combating ISIL Brett McGurk wrote, “Trump tonight after one call with a foreign leader provided a gift to […]
Trump Talks tough with Journalists but Lets Real Strongmen like Turkey’s Erdogan Walk all over Him
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Last week during the visit of the Finnish president, Trump acted out with a journalist, James Mason of Reuters who asked him a simple question. What exactly did Trump want from Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky during the notorious July telephone call? Trump did a bad de Niro impression, asking him, […]
Is Turkey planning an attack on Syrian Kurds?
ISTANBUL —The Turkish government plans to use Syrian refugees to displace the local Kurdish population in northern Syria. But so far, the scheme isn’t working so well. Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayep Erdoğan announced his intention to settle up to two million refugees now living in Turkey into northern Syria. “We aim to accelerate […]
The Saudi Axis and Israel’s Drone War on the Shiite Crescent
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In the past week, Linah al-Saafin at Al Jazeera English points out, an Israeli drone hit a Hizbullah target in Lebanon, Israeli fighter jets bombed a base in Syria with Iranian personnel, and Israel somehow hit bases of a Shiite militia in Iraq, including one on the Syria-Iraq border, killing […]
Thousands of Years of World’s Heritage Endangered in Syria, Cradle of Civilization
By Lubna Omar | – I used to be a Near Eastern archaeologist working in Syria. Nowadays, I am stuck in academic purgatory, observing from a great distance as the country burns, unable to help protect its history or its present. Syria sits within what’s known as the cradle of civilization. It’s part of the […]
US Homeland Security could return Syrian Refugees in US to Violence, Arrest, Torture under al-Assad
Human Rights Watch (Washington, DC) – The US should renew its grant of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to almost 7,000 Syrians living in the United States, Human Rights Watch said today. People forced to return to Syria still face violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, and torture. Destroyed house from US-led coalition strike that killed 13 […]
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