By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Yara Bayoumi at Reuters reports on the complicated minuet being danced by Russia, the Syrian Air Force, and the United States. The Syrian Air Force was bombing positions of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US euphemism for the leftist Kurds of the YPG. The US Air […]
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Syria
Putin’s End Game in Syria
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Syrian press is watching Oliver Stone’s interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin and likes what it sees. Syria’s al-Watan (The Nation) reports that Putin’s Syria policy is the complete restoration of central government authority over the entire country, in preparation for a pull-back of Russian […]
Have Syria’s Kurds invented a Democratic Neo-Socialism?
Dmitry Petrov | (OpenDemocracy.net) | – – In an effort to get through to the Syrian Kurdish autonomous region, I met kindred spirits and found out more about the political and cultural landscape of Iraqi Kurdistan. Sulaymaniyah’s Market Square. Image courtesy of the author.Tossing about on a broken bed in a cheap hostel in the […]
Aerospace Campaign in Syria: Did Putin kill ISIL’s so-called ‘caliph’?
TeleSur | – – The statement came a day after Russia said it killed several senior leaders, 30 field commanders and up to 300 of their personal guards in an airstrike last month. Russian Aerospace Forces based in Syria have made significant gains in the first half of June, eliminating two Islamic State group field […]
Obama’s last Victory: Syrian Democratic Forces hold Parts of ISIL Capital
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper. – T. S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men” Whatever the fate of the world, Eliot’s verse is appropriate to […]
Trump’s Ally: Saudi Arabia’s drive for Aristocratic Hegemony in the Middle East
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Saudi Arabia is making a drive to become a regional hegemon. It has long used its oil wealth to achieve a great deal of influence among neighbors, of course. But it is now flexing military muscles. From a Saudi point of view, they have suffered decades […]
Erdogan & Trump: Can the Confict over Syria be Resolved?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Two really big egos met Tuesday at the White House, as Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan consulted with Donald Trump. The two countries are deeply divided over Syria policy. Syria is actually several wars at once: Rebels are fighting the Baath regime of Bashar al-Assad. An al-Qaeda-linked […]
Why the Weaponization of Health Care in the Syrian War threatens Us All
By Xavier Symons | (The Conversation) | – – Few events in Syria have attracted as much attention as the alleged chemical weapon attack on the town of Khan Shaykhun. The callous use of biological agents to target civilians is a “crime against humanity” and a serious violation of international law, according to human rights […]
Russians Troll Trump, release Photos of Meeting
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – CNN says White House officials were furious on Wednesday when the Russian press (the only journalists invited to the meeting of Trump with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak) abruptly released the pictures. Apparently White House staff thought there was […]