Syria

I crashed the meeting of a lobbying front that ended the life-saving General License 2023 on Syria, and is now pushing to extend Washington’s economic war for another 8 years. Behind closed doors, the former State Department official leading the workshop revealed the group’s ultimate goal: partitioning Syria and creating a de facto Caliphate for a rebranded Al Qaeda offshoot. This July 30, I registered under an alias to join a workshop organized by the Syrian American Council (SAC), the […]

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced his plan to return Syrian refugees in Turkey to Aleppo. For many years he has proposed a plan to create a safe zone, or de-escalation zone specifically developed to hold the millions of Syrian refugees living in Turkey. The Erdogan plan, dubbed […]

Iain Davis Kit Knightly, from the OffGuardian, recently published ISIS are back and they are faker than ever. He explored the apparent return of the ISIS bogeymen and the media narrative that preempted their re-emergent threat. He observes that ISIS, having taken a break during the alleged COVID-19 pandemic, is seemingly the “creation of marketers and …

Kit Knightly In just the last few days ISIS – Islamic State or ISIL or Da’esh or whatever – have hit the headlines in publications from all over the world. A strong resurgence for a narrative that’s been more than quiet for the last few years. To do a quick recap, when last we heard …

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator Israeli airstrikes on Syria have become routine and deadly. On Monday, Israeli airstrikes on Damascus at 2:20 am local time killed four Syrian soldiers and wounded four others.  Damascus residents were awoken from sleep to sounds and flashes of bright lights from the attacks.  Regardless of the numerous attacks, […]

The China-brokered deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran and the Russia-brokered deal between Saudi Arabia and Syria gave a glimpse into how the shifting dynamics of global geopolitics are changing regional alignments. China and Russia need the Middle East on their side to be able to effectively challenge – and even reverse – the US-dominated […]

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator Wildfires broke out on July 25 in Latakia province in northwest Syria and are still burning amid new fires being started.  The fires spread quickly by a sudden unusual wind which whipped up. The whole country, and the adjacent Mediterranean region, is in a heat-wave which sets the stage […]

No one in British parliament has been more aggressive in inciting ethnic tensions in Kosovo than Alicia Kearns. A closer look at her record reveals intelligence ties and “probably illegal” regime change activities. In a remarkable turnaround, after over two decades of turning a blind eye to the slow-motion erasure of Serbs in Kosovo, the EU and US have finally sought to rein in their vassal, issuing frequent condemnations and even imposing sanctions on Pristina. While trivial compared to punitive […]

In a massive show of support for limitless executive power, Congress rejected legislation that would have terminated national emergency powers allowing Washington to wage war across the Middle East.  These same emergency powers give the president the power to lift bans on testing biological weapons on US citizens. Led by Representative Paul Gosar, a handful of Republican members of Congress launched a protest against 41 nominal “national emergency” declarations, many of which are decades old.  Rep. Gosar has argued the […]

How opinion polls limit debate on UK foreign policy: interview with Lillah Fearnleyby Ian SinclairMorning Star6 July 2023 In May, Rethinking Security, a network of UK-based organisations, academics and activists working for a just and peaceful world, published a major new report Thinking Inside The Box: How Opinion Polls Shape Security Debates And Policy In […]