Bashar’s father Hafez al-Assad was brutal but never used chemical arms. And do you know which was the first army to use gas in the Middle East? by Robert Fisk, The Independent The bigger the lie the more people will believe it. We all know who said that – but […]
THE Syrian government has warned that rebels could use chemical weapons in their fight against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, and insists that the regime would never unleash such arms on its own people. British Foreign Secretary William Hague, however, said there was evidence the Damascus government could actually employ chemical […]
The USS Eisenhower, an American aircraft carrier that holds eight fighter bomber squadrons and 8,000 men, arrived at the Syrian coast yesterday in the midst of a heavy storm, indicating […]
Saudi Gazette. While unfortunately there are still too many reservations about the outcome of the Syrian National Council’s Doha summit this week, the situation on the ground in Syria itself is apparently becoming clearer — the Free Syrian Army is going on the offensive in Damascus. In a stunning display […]
Even when his country was not convulsed by war, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria rarely gave televised interviews to foreigners. His session with Barbara Walters in December was a public […]
By Rami G. Khouri The Daily Star, Lebanon It must be depressing for Kofi Annan, the United Nations-Arab League envoy to Syria, to hear at every turn that the “Annan plan” for resolving the conflict is dead, and that country will soon plunge into a full-fledged sectarian civil war. My […]
May 24, 2012 02:20 AM By David Ignatius The Daily Star, Lebanon The Middle East sometimes resembles a string of detonators wired to explode together – and this seems especially true now of Syria and its neighbors. There is political instability nearby in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, as the Arab […]
By ABDUL RAHMAN AL-RASHID ARABNEWS Syrian political activist living in exile Michel Kilo believes that the available alternative after the downfall of President Bashar Assad is an internal war turning into a protracted regional one involving the two superpowers. This was what he wrote in his article in Asharq Al-Awsat, […]
These views were expressed in a ‘National Public Radio’ Talk Show on 12th April 2012: See here for full article. A woman calling from Pennsylvania offering a far different perspective: I’m a Syrian-American. I grew up in the United States. My parents decided to leave Syria when Hafez al-Assad was […]
By Michael Young The Daily Star, Lebanon Which devotee of the anti-globalization left, enlivened by anti-Americanism, could resist a frisson of pleasure when watching Julian Assange interview Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, […]
The Middle East expert and former member of the German Bundestag for the CDU party, Juergen Todenhoefer (Jürgen Todenhöfer), has sharply criticized the one-sided coverage of many media about the […]
By Safa A. Hussein The Daily Star, Lebanon Iraqis celebrated the Arab Spring that changed the regimes of Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen. But they are divided about the protests and uprisings in Bahrain and Syria. On the surface, it seems that this is merely a reflection of the sectarian divide […]
It is wrong to relate the current developments in Syria to the Arab Awakening in Egypt, Libya or Tunisia. Many tend to simplify the situation in Syria, making it merely a matter of the ruling system suppressing unarmed, united and peaceful opposition. I wish it were the case, as it […]
by Taylor Luck | Mar 28,2012 | JORDAN TIMES RAMTHA/AMMAN — Over 1,000 Syrians poured into Jordan on Wednesday, according to activists and security sources, in what marked the single largest influx of refugees from Syria since the beginning of the year-long crisis. Over 1,000 Syrians fleeing a spike in […]
By TARIQ ALHOMAYED, ARABNEWS A dangerous statement, or gaffe, was made by the Russian Foreign Ministry, by its minister Sergey Lavrov, in which he said: “If the current Syrian regime collapses, some countries in the region will want to establish Sunni rule in Syria.” It is very strange that a […]
By JEDDAH: GALAL FAKKAR, ARAB NEWS STAFF The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will send humanitarian assistance to Syria after Damascus gave its consent to the move, the Jeddah-based organization announced yesterday. “The OIC secretariat received a written letter from the Syrian government allowing it to send humanitarian aid […]
Armed groups in Syria have rejected a proposal by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan to renounce violence and seek a political solution to the Syrian unrest. The rejection came one day after Annan urged an end to the months-long unrest in Syria and called for a peaceful way to implement […]
By ASSOCIATED PRESS ARABNEWS GENEVA: The United Nations said on Thursday that it was readying food stocks for 1.5 million people in Syria as part of a 90-day emergency contingency plan to help civilians deprived of basic supplies after nearly a year of conflict. “More needs to be done,” John […]
By DONNA CASSATA | AP ARABNEWS WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pushed back on Wednesday against fresh demands for US military involvement in Syria to end President Bashar Assad’s deadly crackdown on his people. “What doesn’t make sense is to take unilateral action right now,” Panetta told the Senate Armed […]
TEHRAN: Iran is stepping up its military and intelligence support for Syrian government troops in their crackdown against opposition strongholds, The Washington Post reported late Saturday. Citing three unnamed US officials with access to intelligence reports from the region, the newspaper said Tehran had increased supplies of arms and other […]