Archive: syria
4th September 2013
One consequence of President Obama's decision to refer the Syrian chemical weapons issue to Congress is that any action the US eventually decides upon risks being shaped more by the need for congressional votes than an objective assessment of what would be most effective.
As Wells Bennett points… Read more
2nd September 2013
The International Crisis Group is a widely respected thinktank based in Brussels. Yesterday it posted a statement about Syria on its website and various people started tweeting in its praise. The comments sounded like those "reviews" you find on theatre billboards or on the back cover of books:
"… Read more
1st September 2013
Immediately after the chemical attacks near Damascus on August 21, the first reaction of many people – apart from horror at the mass slaughter – was to ask what the Assad regime could have hoped to gain from it.
Some asked the question out of sheer puzzlement, others because they doubted the… Read more
1st September 2013
President Obama's decision to seek approval from Congress for airstrikes in Syria looks like a smart move, at least in terms of American politics.
Following the parliamentary vote in Britain last week which left him without a key ally, and in the face of a discordant clamour from critics who said… Read more
31st August 2013
There's still a lot of confusion among commentators over the purpose of any US-led military action in Syria. Some see the chemical weapons attacks as a backdoor way to reshape Syria's internal conflict. Others argue that if it isn't a backdoor way to do that, it ought to be.
Those in the latter… Read more
31st August 2013
The United States has now published has now published a declassified summary of its intelligence assessment relating to the use of chemical weapons in Syria on August 21.
Like the British intelligence report issued a day earlier, it firmly dismisses the idea that rebels could have carried out the… Read more
30th August 2013
Following last week's meeting of the UN Security Council which in effect gave a green light for chemical attacks in Syria, the Assad regime now has a second green light – this time from Britain.
Yesterday's parliamentary debate ended in a dramatic defeat for the government which means that Britain… Read more
29th August 2013
Bashar al-Assad can relax now, at least for a while. What should have been a clear international response to one of the most dreadful crimes imaginable – the mass slaughter of civilians with poison gas – has descended into confusion and even farce.
The British parliament meets today – urgently… Read more
28th August 2013
In separate statements on Monday and Tuesday, secretary of state John Kerry and White House spokesman Jay Carney explained why the US believes the Assad regime was responsible for the chemical attacks on the outskirts of Damascus last week.
Kerry said the reported number of victims and their… Read more
27th August 2013
George Bush and the neocons have a lot to answer for. Their scheming over Iraq a decade ago has cost us dear and its long shadow still looms over foreign policy decisions – nowhere more so than on Syria where the Great Deception of 2002-2003 is making rational debate increasingly difficult.… 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
