bashar assad

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Russia are nearing an agreement on Syria for how they hope to resolve the Arab country’s civil war once the Islamic State group (ISIS) is defeated, officials said Thursday.
If clinched, the deal was expected to be announced by President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vietnam on Friday, four U.S. officials said. The United States has been reluctant to schedule a formal meeting for the leaders unless they have a substantive agreement to announce.

The ‘age of stupid’ is the only term I can think of for framing this ongoing nonsense. President Trump and members of his administration have taken the questionable approach of stating outright that the US will respond severely if the Syrian government carries out another chemical attack on civilians. More than that, it is insisting […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin walks along the Cathedral Square of the Kremlin, to take part in a holiday reception in Moscow, Monday, June 12, 2017. (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik)
Senate Republicans and Democrats reached agreement late Monday on a new package of sanctions on Russia amid the firestorm over Russia’s meddling in the presidential election and investigations into Moscow’s possible collusion with members of President Donald Trump’s campaign.

From RussiaFeed

Israeli general, now Housing Minister. Yoav Galant is openly calling for the assassination of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad.(AP/Ariel Schalit)
Housing Yoav Galant on Tuesday condemned the genocide taking place in Syria, adding that “it is time to eliminate” President Bashar Assad, following US accusations that the regime is using a crematorium to hide atrocities being committed outside Damascus.

President Donald Trump walks from the podium after speaking at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Thursday, April 6, 2017, after the U.S. fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria. (AP/Alex Brandon)
The Trump administration is accusing the Syrian government carrying out mass killings of thousands of prisoners and burning the dead bodies in a large crematorium outside the capital.

I posted up an old video of Asma al-Assad last week, because I thought her sentiments in the recording really resonated with what has been going on in Syria and the Middle East in recent years. I didn’t know, however, that a couple of days later the UK newspapers would feature sudden articles calling for […]

Syrian President Bashar Assad says the Syrian government has formally approached the United Nations, asking it to send in the experts to investigate the April 4 suspected chemical attack.
Assad said in an interview with the Russian state-owned RIA Novosti news agency on Thursday that the U.N. has not sent anyone yet and blamed Western nations and the United States in particular for not allowing the experts to travel to Syria.
Assad insisted that if the experts arrive, they will see that reports of what happened in the Idlib province “were all lies.”

I came across this old footage of Syria’s First Lady, Asma al-Assad, and found the content of her talk here striking: and also somewhat poignant, given when it was made and what has happened since. Given the current situation and escalating tensions, I thought this was well worth sharing. In this talk, from way back […]