It’s seemingly inexplicable to many that one of the world’s top oil exporters won’t help its “ally” survive the ever-worsening fuel crisis, but upon closer consideration and after much-needed critical thinking, it becomes clear that Russia intends to politicize this crisis in order to compel Syria into undertaking further concessions […]
It’s misleading to assert that Assad “won” the war even though he still remains in office as the country’s democratically elected and legitimate leader since Putin compelled him to “compromise” on several important issues after the Liberation of Aleppo and accept a political reality completely at odds with what one […]
The Lebanese President warned during his trip in Russia that the 1,5 million Syria refugees that his country hosts might be tempted to migrate en mass to Europe if Moscow doesn’t ‘more enthusiastically encourage’ Damascus to facilitate their large-scale return in the near future, though it’s unlikely that this so-called […]
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s first election victory in 2013, proved to be unpopular with the country’s Principlists (aka conservatives/hardliners) as Rouhani promoted reforms that would ideally allow Iran to open up its economy to western partners that had previously put Iran under heavy economic sanctions. Rouhani’s political goal was realised […]
With a major US withdrawal from Syria expected sooner rather than later, the pre-existing trend of regional powers guiding, shaping and owning the peace process in the Arab Republic’s conflict is becoming all the more pronounced. The Astana Trio of Turkey, Russia and Iran have long been the major force […]
Throughout the long and violent conflict in Syria, the 1998 Adana Agreement has only come up in a major way during this last week. The subject first arose when during a joint press conference between Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, the latter invoked the Adana Agreement […]
In Syria, the US attempts at regime change hit a brick wall for a number of reasons that were either ignored or difficult to foresee by the Obama administration when the decision was first made to foment chaos in a previously mostly placid Syria. The following such issues that were […]
With the possible exception of Lebanon, the Arab state with the worst 20th century relations with Turkey has been Syria. In the late 1930s, some Syrians objected to the incorporation of the former Sanjak of Alexandretta (part of French Mandate Syria – a de facto colony of France) into the Republic […]
WMD 2.0 The military phrase of the conflict in Syria is all but over and it has now become clear that Bashar al-Assad has one major chemical weapon of mass destruction….but don’t call the United Nations. This is not a physical weapon but rather a psychological one. Moreover, the weapon […]
Every war has an objective ranging from the noble to the wicked. Turning to some clearly wicked examples of wars that succeeded in their objective, in 2011, the US, UK and France sought to undermine and overthrow the Libyan state and subsequently did so. Similarly, in 2003, the US and […]