Archive: syria
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
5th December 2011
Razan Ghazzawi, a prominent Syrian blogger and rights activist, was arrested on Sunday while travelling to Jordan for a conference on freedom of expression.
One of her friends told Reuters: "She was arrested as she presented her passport to immigration at the Syrian border post of Nassib to cross… Read more
13th November 2011
For the second time this year, the Arab League – usually regarded as one of the world's most ineffectual and divided organisations – has shown a surprising sense of unity and purpose with regard to one of its own members' behaviour.
In March it called for a no-fly zone over Libya and now it has… Read more
5th November 2011
Largely unnoticed in the midst of other events, it was the turn of Syria to come up for scrutiny by the UN Human Rights Council last month, under the periodic review system.
As part of the review process each country has to submit a self-assessment report describing its efforts in the human rights… Read more
29th August 2011
Just three days after Syria's best-known political cartoonist, Ali Ferzat, was beaten up by the regime's thugs, President Assad issued a decree on Sunday to "reform" the country's media law.
This is the latest in a series of apparently futile "reforms" announced by the president in the midst of the… Read more
26th July 2011
Syria's official news agency has released some details of the draft law for political parties which was approved by the cabinet on Sunday. Though hailed by the information minister as "modern" and laying the foundations for a new era of pluralism, the law looks remarkably similar to those found in… 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
