Syria

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Turkey and Russia are announcing they have reached a cease-fire deal in Syria. The ceasefire reached in Aleppo will be continued past December 28, and will be expanded to other parts of the country Russia is representing the government of Bashar al-Assad, which its air force […]

Bahrain

With Fall of Aleppo, will a Russo-Iranian Middle East challenge Trump?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – On Thursday, the Syrian government announced that the last of those who wanted to be evacuated from the East Aleppo pocket had been bused out, and that the Bashar al-Assad regime had reestablished complete control over the entire city of Aleppo. Bashar al-Assad in his remarks […]

Featured

Hard Truth: Aleppo Rebels weren’t defeated by Main Force but b/c they alienated Syrians

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Syria was in a better position to attain peace last spring, when a ceasefire had unexpected success. It would have been better if the rebels had been able to keep East Aleppo and the rest of their territory, and the regime had been forced to dicker […]

Employment

It’s the Economy, Stupid: Ending ‘Religious’ Violence in the Middle East

contributors

Moha Ennaji | (Project Syndicate) | – – FEZ – The escalation of radicalism, violence, and civil wars in the Middle East since the so-called Arab Spring revolts began in 2010 has exacted a massive toll in human lives and welfare. The need to build effective states that support peace, provide greater opportunity and prosperity, […]

Featured

After Aleppo, Russians prepare to defy Trump re: their Iran Alliance

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – the left-leaning Lebanese newspaper al-Safir [Ambassador] reports that the armed resistance to the regime of Bashar al-Assad in the East Aleppo pocket is finished. Reports from Wednesday morning say that the ceasefire that Russia and the regime signed onto in hopes that the few hundred hold-outs […]

Featured

Syria’s Aleppo Falling: The Government Russia actually Turned

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – By Monday morning Syrian time, the large and important district of Shaikh Saeed in southeastern Aleppo had completely fallen to the Syrian Arab Army and its allies among the Shiite militias of Lebanon and Iraq. (Orange in this map areas regime has taken in past 3 […]

Children

2016 ‘One of worst Years in History for Children’: UNICEF

contributors

By Matthew Tempest | ( EurActiv.com ) | – – Syria: Abdulaziz (in red), 10, whose father was killed in the continuing conflict, spends time with his friends at the ‘Land of Childhood’ – two basements linked with a tunnel to create an underground playground that gives children a relatively safe place to have fun […]

Featured

Syria unlikely to be Partitioned: The Resilience of Colonial Borders

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Whenever a country falls into civil war, there are always observers who suggest that the problem could be resolved by a partition of that country. It is as though they think the parties to the war are like squabbling children in the back seat of the […]

Featured

More districts of East Aleppo fall to Regime & Militia Allies

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Both regime sources and the Britain-based Syria Observatory said Tuesday that the Syrian Arab Army and its Shiite militia allies from Lebanon and Iraq had taken the district of Shaar in the East Aleppo pocket. In the past two weeks rebel forces have lost the northeast […]