Syria

الجمهورية العربية السورية

Darfur Is Still Burning

John Prendergast & Omer Ismail, The Daily Beast

"The Regime Killed My Husband"

Michael Weiss, NOW Lebanon

No One Cares About Syria

Terry Glavin, Ottawa Citizen

European Jihadists in Syria Provoke Fear

Nadette De Visser, Daily Beast

Despite the narrative from diplomats and journalists that Sudan’s civil war is mostly over, Janjaweed gunmen are still terrorizing the region. This time, no one’s paying attent...(full article)

France 2 foreign correspondent Gilles Jacquier was one of the first Western journalists to be killed in Syria, in January 2012, as he and a regime-sanctioned delegation of reporter...(full article)

Maybe it is because it just has not sunk in. The body count in Syria over the past two years easily exceeds the death toll from the first two years of the war in Iraq. As a humani...(full article)

The gruesome video of a beheading in Syria that surfaced on the Internet recently was shocking by any measure. But when people in Belgium and The Netherlands listened to the voices...(full article)

By the end of the summer, more than 100,000 Syrians are likely to have died in a calamitous civil war that shows no signs of abating. As a result, the pressure to intervene will mo...(full article)

Most Recent Articles

Three Reasons to Distrust Media on Syria - Rodger Shanahan, ABC

There have been many notable failings in the Western media's coverage of Syria over the last few years. While Joan Juliet Buck's hagiography of Asma al-Assad for US Vogue ...

Iran Declares Victory in Syria - John Gay, The National Interest

In the days after the joint Syrian Army–Lebanese Hezbollah victory over the rebels in the strategic town of Qusayr, the Assad regime has been positively giddy,announcing ...

Don't Throw Flame Into Syria's Tinderbox - Daily Mail

In Syria itself, President Assad appears to be gaining the upper hand, with help from Russian arms and Hezbollah, the fanatically anti-Israeli terrorist group based in Lebanon. Yet...

Middle East Must Build a Military Alliance - Faisal Al Yafai, The National

How gratifying it is to see two of the Arab world's toughest military forces fighting side by side, facing a common enemy. What a shame that the enemy in question should be Syrian ...

Russia the Kingmaker of the Mideast - David Goldman, Asia Times

Russia has thrown a monkey wrench into Western plans for Syria by promising to deliver its top-of-the-line S300 surface-to-air missile system to the Bashar al-Assad government. Exa...

Europe Begins to Doubt America - John Vinocur, New York Times

In conversations in London and Paris with high British and French officials, there were expressions of concern about how the Obama administration aims to prevail in the Syria crisi...

Yes, Assad Can Be Defeated - Max Boot, Commentary

The Obama administration is stubbornly consistent on Syria: It is for inaction under any and all circumstances. Only the excuses for inaction change....

Outside Powers Mustn't Impose Syria Solution - Hassan Hassan, National

As US officials deliberate this week on whether to arm the Syrian rebels, they should remember one point: It will be easier to impose a solution on the regime than on the people....

Syrian Non-Intervention Is a Fantasy - Richard Spencer, Daily Telegraph

Last Wednesday, the Conservative MP Mark Field marked the eve of D-Day by publishing this thought on the Telegraph website: "The fortunes of foreign nations are rarely dictated by ...

How Syria Stand Helps Putin at Home - Simon Shuster, Time

Have a look at Vladimir Putin’s day planner over the past month, and you could be forgiven for thinking the Russian President has become the most powerful man in the world. Sin...

What Does Russia Want in the Middle East? - David Goldman, Asia Times

Russia has thrown a monkey wrench into Western plans for Syria by promising to deliver its top-of-the-line S300 surface-to-air missile system to the Bashar al-Assad government. E...

Syria Is Now Saudi Arabia's Problem - Hassan Hassan, Foreign Policy

Hezbollah can finally claim a victory in Syria. The town of Qusayr, adjacent to the Lebanese border, has fallen to the Lebanese militia after nearly a month of fierce battles with ...

Syria Is Bleeding to Death & West Does Nothing - Nick Cohen, The Observer

Sceptics about humanitarian intervention in Syria hit you with what they regard as a killer question: "Where do you stop?" If the "international community", such as it is, tries to...

Why Is Saudi Arabia Panicking? - Joel Brinkley, World Affairs Journal

Every nation bordering Syria—Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Turkey—is being drawn into the conflict there. The leaders in these countries are worried, to say the least....

Hezbollah's Vietnam? - Michael Young, NOW Lebanon

The only thing odd about Hezbollah’s intervention in the Syrian conflict is that it took over two years for the party and its backers in Tehran to make the decision. That&rsq...

Obama Clueless on Syria - Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post

On Wednesday, Qusair fell to the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. Qusair is a strategic town that connects Damascus with the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean, with its ports ...

After al-Qusayr, Assad Has the Upper Hand - Karl Vick, Time

The battle of al-Qusayr, the border town that Syrian government forces wrested from rebels on Wednesday after two bloody weeks of combat, carries significance beyond its position a...

We Need to Talk About Syria - The Spectator

It is heartening that Mr Cameron believes Britain is a country that ought to shape the world, rather than be shaped by it. He is right to think there is a danger of over-complicati...

Liberal Hawks Fall Silent Over Syria - Michael Young, The National

Last Sunday, US Senator John McCain offered a bleak assessment of the situation in Syria. He observed that the president, Bashar Al Assad, "now has the upper hand and it's tragic w...

Why Would Assad Want to Use Chemical Weapons? - Vivienne Walt, Time

With Western leaders weighing whether to intervene in the Syrian war with a Libya-style bombing campaign or by arming the Syrian rebels with heavy weaponry, it would seem logical t...

Assad Isn't Winning - Yet - The Guardian

The battle for the border town of Qusair had all the ingredients of a total tragedy: thousands of civilians trapped without food or medicine; rebels resisting for two weeks against...

Obama's Putin Problem - Eli Lake, Newsweek

Later this month, Presidents Obama and Putin will both attend a G8 summit in Northern Ireland. The two men will be meeting at what is likely to be an ugly moment in U.S.-Russia r...

Al-Qaeda vs. Hezbollah - Clifford May, National Review

Back during the Bush administration, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage famously called Hezbollah the “A Team of terrorists,” adding, “al-Qaeda is actually the B Te...

In Syria, the Ghost of Sir Mark Sykes - Alan Philps, The National

The former rebel stronghold of Qusayr is described by reporters as a "ghost town" after three weeks of devastating assault by the Syrian army and its allies from Hizbollah, the L...

The Friend of My Enemy Is My Enemy - Michael Totten, City Journal

Syria’s blood-soaked tyrant, Bashar al-Assad, is finally right about something. He recently told an Argentine newspaper that he doubts the joint Russian-American peace initiati...

Iran Outmaneuvers U.S. in Syrian Proxy War - Vali Nasr, Bloomberg

The Syrian uprising offered the possibility of a strategic defeat of Iran. In this scenario, Iran would be weakened by the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, its single Ar...

Russia's Syria Plans Could Backfire - Fyodor Lukyanov, RIGA

Although Russia may have made symbolic gains (its status as an indispensable player is fully recognized), the achievements are small-scale in practice. From the outset, Moscow has ...

Assad Toys with Erdogan over Riots - Semih Idiz, Al Monitor

The nationwide demonstrations and rioting following the brutality by Turkish police last weekend toward demonstrators trying to prevent the destruction of age-old trees in Gezi Par...

Syria's Tragic Comedy - The National

The Syrian government is worried about citizens travelling to Turkish cities that have been rocked by recent protests....

Assad's Bloody Comeback - Con Coughlin, Wall Street Journal

Iran's military support to Bashar al-Assad is starting to have a decisive impact on the course of Syria's brutal sectarian conflict. For the first time in more than two years of fi...

Lebanon Inches Toward Disaster - Rajan Menon, The National Interest

It has been Lebanon’s unenviable fate to be the playground for the deadly games of its more powerful and rivalrous neighbors. What has made Lebanon particularly vulnerable to the...

OIC Calls for Syria No-Fly Zone - Josh Rogin, The Daily Beast

The leader of the world’s largest coalition of Muslim countries personally endorsed the idea of an international no-fly zone in Syria Monday, in an exclusive interview with The...

The Obama Doctrine: Do Nothing - Rick Richman, PJ Media

Two people — identified only as “Senior Administration Official One” (SAO I) and “Senior Administration Official Two” (SAO II) — held a background briefing at the Sta...

The Rise of Shia Jihadism in Syria - Hassan Hassan, The National

Amid Syria's worsening crisis, there is another unprecedented, yet overlooked phenomenon that bodes ill for the entire region: the rise of global Shia jihadism. The number of for...

Hezbollah's Dangerous Gamble in Syria - Mona Yacoubian, Foreign Affairs

Last week, Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah confirmed his group's involvement in Syria. In doing so, he contorted Hezbollah's traditional talk of resistance against Israel -- which has...

Coastal State May Be Assad's Last Resort - Michael Williams, The National

Looking back at the conflicts of the past three decades, there have been recurring patterns of war triggering or reawakening past identities that we thought were lost in history bo...

Lebanon Commits National Suicide - The Daily Star

The good news is that a wave of speculation about the war in Syria reaching Lebanon can now be brought to an end, thanks to the events of this weekend. The bad news, naturally, is ...

Does Obama Secretly Want Assad to Win? - Max Boot, Commentary

I’m with the Wall Street Journal editorial page (and numerous conspiracy theorists throughout the Middle East): I’m starting to suspect that President Obama secretly wa...

The Spanish Civil War Meets Syria - Andrew Doran, American Interest

In the spring of 2012, a State Department consultant sat at a bar on Capitol Hill watching a baseball game. Across the bar, a young, boisterous American woman solicited funds, so s...

John Kerry's Syrian Quagmire - Gayle Lemmon, Foreign Policy

As the secretary of state tries to get the rebels and the regime to the negotiating table, a State Department official says it would take "sarin gas being lobbed at Tel Aviv" for W...

Syria: John McCain's Next Libya - Andrew McCarthy, National Review

The Maverick is sensitive to the criticism that he has been a smidge less than discriminating when it comes to sorting out America’s friends from America’s mortal enemi...

Hassan Nasrallah's Deceit Revealed - Frida Ghitis, Miami Herald

Once upon a time, there was a man who enjoyed great admiration in much of the Middle East. Hassan Nasrallah was said to be the most popular man in the region. Just as admired was ...

Putin's Missiles Will Change the Mideast Game - Michael Bell, Globe & Mail

The S-300 system is intended by Russia to restore Syrian sovereignty over its airspace, which it had de facto ceded to Israel. The system is intended to discourage Israeli air atta...

Britain Is Arming Its Future Attackers - Peter Hitchens, Daily Mail

This is exactly how major wars start. Mr Hague is not just pouring petrol into a blazing house full of screaming people. He is hurling in high explosives as well. It may even be th...

A Second Battle Also Defines the Arabs - Rami Khouri, The Daily Star

Recent history suggests that states which try to restrict their citizens’ ability to speak their mind peacefully and constructively are fighting a losing battle. The nature o...

Syria