Peter Hitchens, the Mail On Sunday columnist, claims to have detected a "very interesting pattern" in official reports about chemical weapon allegations in Syria. The pattern, he says, is that "if official reports don't justify punitive attacks on Syria, new reports then appear, which do...
Blog archive: All
-
19th September 2018
-
13th September 2018A "vast body of evidence" supports claims that a chemical attack took place in Douma earlier this year, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said yesterday. The reported attack, on April 7, led to airstrikes by American, British and French forces six days later. As on all previous...
-
12th September 2018Video footage of a faked chemical attack in Syria, which the Russian military claimed would be "handed to global news outlets by the end of Tuesday", has so far failed to materialise. According to a briefing note issued by the Russian Centre for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in...
-
10th September 2018Fighting near the Yemeni city of Hodeidah intensified at the weekend after peace talks in Geneva were abandoned before they had even begun. The talks foundered over a dispute about travel arrangements which meant that representatives of the Houthi rebels who control much of northern...
-
8th September 2018Amid fears of a bloodbath in northern Syria where regime forces and their Russian allies are poised for an assault on the last rebel-held area, victory festivities are already under way in the capital. This year's Damascus International Fair, a 10-day exhibition of consumer goods,...
-
29th August 2018Since 2012 there have been scores of suspected chemical attacks in Syria – possibly more than 200. Of those, only a few have been investigated by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and only three have resulted in significant consequences for the alleged...
-
24th August 2018George Papadopoulos, the first person to plead guilty in the Trump-Russia affair, is due to be sentenced soon for giving false information to the FBI but, since he later agreed to cooperate with the investigation, special counsel Robert Mueller has recommended a light or non-existent jail term...
-
17th August 2018Fifteen years after US-led invasion, Iraq continues to face a multitude of problems. Iraqi citizens are tired of it and, increasingly, they are blaming the country's politicians. Demands are growing for political reform and a serious effort to tackle corruption. In an article ...
-
16th August 2018A former British ambassador has called on western governments to "shorten the agony of Syria" by re-engaging with the Assad regime – in effect, turning a blind eye to the regime's atrocities during the seven-year conflict. In an article circulated (here, here and here) by the regime's...
-
13th August 2018Boris Johnson, Britain's recently-resigned foreign secretary, built his political career by courting controversy. He has gained notoriety over the years by referring to young women as "hot totty", gay men as "tank-topped bumboys" and black Africans as "piccaninnies". His latest foray into...
-
7th August 2018Saudi Arabia launched an extraordinary campaign against Canada yesterday. Besides expelling the Canadian ambassador, it announced a trade freeze and a suspension of flights to Toronto and said thousands of Saudis currently studying in Canada will be transferred to other countries. In a more...
-
4th August 2018Deadly explosions that hit the Yemeni city of Hodeidah on Thursday have been widely attributed to Saudi-led airstrikes but emerging evidence suggests they were probably the result of mortar fire. Hodeidah, on the Red Sea coast, is seen as a key battleground in the Yemen conflict. It is...