Archive: syria
13th March 2012
This week brings the first anniversary of the Syrian uprising, and the occasion will be marked by demonstrations against the Assad regime in various countries. One of them will be in London on Saturday and among those taking part, apparently, will be Lizzie Phelan.
Phelan, readers of this blog will… Read more
10th March 2012
Last November I wrote about Syria's rather surreal attempts to persuade the UN Human Rights Council that it is making progress on human rights – "the right to peaceful assembly is afforded under the Syrian constitution", "a human rights syllabus is taught in relevant educational establishments,"… Read more
11th February 2012
Lizzie Phelan, the British "independent journalist" whose fanciful reporting of the Libyan conflict attracted a good deal of attention on the internet last year, appeared on Russia Today yesterday, blaming Britain, Israel, France and the US for the double bombing in the Syrian city of Aleppo.… Read more
11th February 2012
It has long been assumed that the pro-government demonstrations in Syria are anything but spontaneous – that government employees and the like are obliged to take part in them. A series of intercepted emails from the Ministry of Presidential Affairs now provides some confirmation of this –… Read more
18th January 2012
Another insidious myth is doing the rounds: that 55% of Syrians support president Assad. The figure was cited by Aisling Byrne in an article which I critiqued recently. Now, it has surfaced again in an article by Jonathan Steele for the Guardian.
While it is undoubtedly true that the Assad regime… Read more
8th January 2012
Denying the authenticity of the Syrian uprising is a central plank of the Assad regime's propaganda message – that the whole thing, as the official news agency put it recently, is a "Zio-American" plot.
To anyone who has been following events in Syria closely since last March, the regime's… Read more
2nd January 2012
Syria began 2011 with its economy in relatively good health. A year later, it looks very different: everything is getting worse and will continue to do so until the uprising ends. As I have said before, the state of the economy will be a major factor in determining how long the Assad regime… Read more
22nd December 2011
It is possible but – on the basis of what is known so far – not particularly probable that the explosions in Damascus on Friday were the work of al-Qaeda or elements of the Syrian opposition. What cannot be disputed, though, is that the "attacks" provide support for the regime's official line about… Read more
21st December 2011
The collapse of the Assad regime was never going to be swift. Since the early days of the uprising last March, my feeling all along was that it wouldn't happen this year. And even if it were to happen tomorrow, the opposition is sill far from ready to take over.
Next year, though, is a different… Read more
20th December 2011
Syria finally agreed to the Arab League's "reconciliation" initiative on Monday. The fact that President Assad delegated the task of signing it to his deputy foreign minister, and that this happened on a day that brought the largest number of deaths since the uprising began – 114 according to… Read more
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
