Syria

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Last Two Neoconservatives in the Trump administration, National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have swung into action to repeal Trump’s troop withdrawal from Syria. Bolton visited Israel to reassure prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the US will look after the interests of allies as […]

Featured

Trump’s Remark that Iranians ‘Can do what they want’ in Syria Mocked in Mideast

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Christian-owned Lebanese daily al-Nahar (The Day) mocked Trump’s remark this week that Iran can do whatever it wants in Syria after the US military withdrawal (“they can do what they want there, frankly”). A columnist for the newspaper, Monalisa Fariha, entitled her piece, “Iran will get out of Syria […]

Syria

The US Should Leave Syria, but Must Protect its Kurds from Turkey

Stephen Zunes

By Stephen Zunes | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Donald Trump’s sudden decision to remove U.S. forces from Syria appears to have been impetuous and ill-considered — apparently a result of a conversation with Turkey’s autocratic president Recep Erdoğan. That doesn’t mean, however, that the United States should remain in that country. It’s […]

Syria

Al-Qaeda-Linked Guerrillas make Gains in Northwest Syria

Middle East Monitor

Clashes among rival Syrian rebel factions have spread across northwest Syria, rebels and residents said on Thursday, in the latest bout of tit-for-tat fighting between opponents of President Bashar al Assad’s rule, Reuters reports. Infighting has long plagued Syria’s armed opposition since the uprising against Assad began in 2011. Turf wars have helped the Syrian […]

Afghanistan

Trump Spews Incomprehensible Nonsense on Kurds, Syria, Afghanistan

Juan Cole

“A Commentary on the words that spewed from Trump’s mouth at his news conference during a cabinet meeting on January 2, 2019,” or, “A Ph.D. who has been teaching at a public Ivy since 1984 is forced to spend his time chasing the rabid ferrets running around in the head of a decrepit reality t.v. […]

Foreign Policy

Pompeo Pledges continuing US Cooperation with Israel in Syria v. Iran

Middle East Monitor

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday that the United States would continue to cooperate with Israel over Syria and in countering Iran in the Middle East, even as President Donald Trump plans to withdraw US troops from Syria. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as he met with Pompeo in the Brazilian […]

Syria

As Trump Gets out of Syria & Afghanistan will Mercenaries & Blackwater Come In?

Open Democracy

By Paul Rogers | – At the end of 2003 the United States-led war in Iraq was going badly wrong. It had started so well from the Pentagon’s perspective, as American troops entered Baghdad within weeks of launching the invasion in late March. The regime crumbled and a statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled. The […]

Iran

Rightwing Iran’s Policy in post-US Syria is to Block Kurdish Left

Middle East Monitor

By Maysam Behravesh | – US President Donald Trump’s abrupt announcement last week of the withdrawal of American troops from Syria caught many people off guard, including his own administration officials. It actually prompted the resignation of Defence Secretary James Mattis. The surprise, however, was perhaps greater in Tehran’s corridors of power. Less than two […]

Russia

Filling Vacuum Left by Trump, Russia & Turkey Coordinate on Syria

AFP

Moscow, Russia | AFP | – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, pictured August 2018, met to coordinate ground operations in Syria after the announced US military pullout Russia and Turkey on Saturday agreed to coordinate ground operations in Syria after the shock announcement of a US military withdrawal, […]