Syria
Syria's stalemate raises the spectre of civil war
Comment Is Free, 15 Sep 2011
Assad's opponents are putting pressure on the international community to act in Syria, but who would intervene, and how?
Saudi Arabia's message to Syria, decoded
Comment Is Free, 8 Aug 2011
It is Iranian influence, not the killing of civilians, that Saudi Arabia is concerned about as it recalls its ambassador in Syria
Gay Girl in Damascus was an arrogant fantasy
Comment Is Free, 13 Jun 2011
Tom MacMaster's hoax blog undermines, rather than illuminates, awareness of the realities of being gay in the Middle East
Syria will change – with or without Assad
Comment Is Free, 9 May 2011
Even if Syria's president manages to quell the current uprising, it doesn't mean he has won
This time, brutal crackdown in Syria may not work
Comment Is Free, 25 Apr 2011
Assad's promises of reform have failed to stop the widespread protest – but Syria is no longer cut off from the outside world
Bashar
al-Assad's strategy in Syria is self-defeating
Comment Is Free, 19 Apr 2011
Syrians will not be won over by promises of reform from a regime that continues to kill protesters and spread disinformation
Syria
has heard all this reform talk before
Comment Is Free, 8 Apr 2011
Bashar al-Assad is promising change in a bid to placate Sunnis and Kurds – but how many people in Syria believe him?
64 comments
Syria: the boldness of Bashar
al-Assad
Comment Is Free, 31 Mar 2011
Bashar al-Assad's seemingly relaxed attitude to reform is either supreme confidence or extreme recklessness
Twenty things you need to know about Syria
The Guardian, 25 Mar 2011
A brief guide to key facts everyone should know about Syria
When is a dictator not a dictator?
Comment Is Free, 18 Dec 2009
Bashar al-Assad leads an authoritarian regime, but the workings of power in a country such as Syria are surprisingly complex
Satellite
evidence
Comment Is Free, October 25, 2007
Pictures of what could be a nuclear
reactor cast new light on Israel's mysterious bombing of a site in Syria.
Syria
stands to gain from Lebanon's pain
Guardian, July 31 2006
The Bakdash ice-cream parlour is one of the great institutions of old
Damascus, established in 1895 and renowned throughout the city. Among the more
distinguished visitors to have sampled its produce is the king of Jordan,
whose photo hangs prominently on the wall. Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of
Hizbullah, may be too busy just now to drop in for a pistachio-sprinkled
cornet ...
Assad
pledges support for UN Hariri inquiry
Guardian, Friday March 17 2006
Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, said last night he would meet a UN
commission investigating the murder of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik
Hariri.
UN
wants to question Assad in Hariri inquiry
The Guardian, January 03 2006
The UN commission investigating the assassination
of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri has
asked to interview Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad,
the commission said yesterday.
Syria
accuses former vice-president of treason for Hariri
claim
The Guardian, January 02 2006
Syria's ruling Ba'ath party has expelled the former
vice-president Abdel-Halim Khaddam and intends to put
him on trial for treason, the country's official news
agency, Sana, said yesterday.
Syria
'will let Hariri death inquiry see Assad relatives'
The Guardian, November 02 2005
The UN commission investigating the murder of the
former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri can
question two relatives of the Syrian president,
Syria's ambassador in London said yesterday.
UN
demands Syria's cooperation in Hariri inquiry but
retreats from sanctions threat
The Guardian, November 01 2005
UN security council members unanimously adopted a
resolution yesterday demanding that Syria cooperate
with an international inquiry into the killing of the
former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Could
Syria have been so stupid?
The Guardian, October 25 2005
Tens of thousands of Syrians took to the streets of
Damascus and Aleppo yesterday protesting against the
UN report that implicated Syria in the assassination
of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Rogue
Syrians must be held to account, says US
The Guardian, October 22 2005
George Bush called last night for
the UN security council to take up urgently the
question of Syrian involvement in the assassination of
Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister,
saying the international community had to hold
Damascus accountable.
Assad's
brother-in-law named over Hariri death
The Guardian, October 19 2005
A UN investigator has named the
brother-in-law of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad as
a suspect in the killing of the former Lebanese prime
minister, Rafik Hariri, a German magazine said
yesterday.
Syrian
state inquiry finds minister killed himself
The Guardian, October 14 2005
An official investigation into the
death of the Syrian interior minister, Ghazi Kanaan,
has found that he committed suicide, government
newspapers in Damascus reported yesterday amid growing
international scepticism.
Middle
East tension rises as UN prepares to accuse Syria of
Hariri assassination
The Guardian, September 23 2005
UN investigators will next month
directly implicate the Syrian government in the
assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese
prime minister, potentially igniting a new Middle East
crisis.
Damascene
subversion
Guardian Unlimited, September 19 2005
An extraordinary sense of
foreboding has developed among Syria-watchers over the
last few days - a feeling that momentous events are
just around the corner. Some even suggest the regime
of the president, Bashar al-Assad, could fall within a
matter of months.
Long
shadow of the Beirut massacre
The Guardian, September 06 2005
The arrest last week of four
Lebanese generals on charges of murder, attempted
murder and terrorism is an unprecedented event in the
Middle East: high-ranking officers have been arrested
before - often on trumped-up charges
Afraid
to let go
The Guardian,
June 06 2005
More than 1,000 members of the Syrian Ba'ath
party are gathering in Damascus today for what the Syrian president, Bashar
al-Assad, has promised will be a great leap forward on the road to reform.
The
power of words
The Guardian,
November 23 2004
Damascus would do well to defuse anti-Syrian sentiment in Beirut and the
wider world with an offer of dialogue ...
Suspicious
sanctions
The Guardian,
May 17 2004
President Bush finally got round to imposing
sanctions on Syria last week, much to the delight of Israel. "This is an
important decision that proves, once again, the resolve of the United States to
wage all-out war - not just against terrorist groups, bu...
Syria dusts off maps of Golan Heights battlefields following Israeli attack
The Guardian,
November 10 2003
They call it Shouting Valley - a remote spot in
the Golan Heights where Syrians go to meet their relatives on the opposite side.
Across the valley they can see each other and wave, but it is not easy to talk.
Syrian
whispers
The Guardian,
October 28 2003
The old Soviet Union had two main newspapers -
Pravda ("The Truth") and Izvestia ("The News"). Russians used to joke that there
was no news in "The Truth" and no truth in "The News".
A
secluded resort, fine for regime leaders looking to get away from it all
The Guardian,
April 22 2003
The hotel is described as luxury class and it
boasts the longest private beach on the Mediterranean. But is it really a place
where an ex-dictator and his chums would hide? ...
Syria's stark choice
The Guardian,
April 21 2003
There's a good deal of paranoia in Syria these
days, much of it justified.
Old
guard faces crisis as heat turns on Syria
The Guardian,
April 18 2003
At the moment when American forces swept into
Baghdad and Iraqis began attacking the symbols of Saddam Hussein's rule, Syrian
television interrupted its live coverage of the war to bring viewers a programme
about Islamic art and architecture.
Misplaced politics in Damascus
The Guardian,
November 05 2001
Two days after Tony Blair's flying circus left
town, a defiant and very different event took place in the suburbs of Damascus -
one organised by Islamic Jihad. In fact, rarely have so many representatives of
what Mr Blair would term "global terrorism" been gathered together in the same
spot.
Cartoonist gives Syria a new line in freedom
The Guardian,
April 03 2001
Politics has never been much fun in Syria, but
the cartoonist Ali Farzat believes that jokes are the way to bring about reform.
Syrians fall victim to racism in Lebanon
The Guardian,
March 19 2001
Last Wednesday traffic in Beirut - probably the
Middle East's most frenetic city - came to a halt. The cause of the chaos,
depending how you look at it, was either a student protest against the Syrian
presence in Lebanon or the roadblocks set up to control the protesters.
Syria
looks to the future
The Guardian,
March 13 2001
Journalists used to return from visits to Syria
with tales of government paranoia, of being escorted everywhere by government
minders or tailed by the secret police -and eventually devising some brilliant
ruse to give them the slip.
Middle
East stares war in the face
Guardian Unlimited, 12
March, 2001
US
urges Syria to be tougher on Iraq
The Guardian, 27
February, 2001
Baghdad
starts oil flowing in pipeline to Syria
The Guardian, 23 November, 2000
Syria
to free 600 political prisoners
The Guardian, 17 November, 2000
Syrians endorse Bashar
July 11 2000
One month after the death of President Hafez
al-Assad, Syrian voters turned out yesterday to confirm the succession of his
34-year-old son, Bashar.
Challenger
backs off ... for the moment
The Guardian, 14 June, 2000
City
in black as leaders arrive
The Guardian, 13
June, 2000
Syrian
heir disputed by uncle
The Guardian, 13 June, 2000
Why
Israel must help Bashar
Guardian Unlimited, 13
June, 2000
Gloomy
prospects for peace process
The Guardian, 12 June, 2000
Dictator's
son inherits a fragile peace
11 June, 2000
Flight
from border zone turns spotlight on Syria
The Guardian, 25
May, 2000
Drive
to get Syria on peace train
The Guardian, 4
May, 2000
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