Syria

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The US announcement that it would form a 30,000 strong policing force in northeast Syria from the YPG leftist Kurdish militia has provoked unprecedently strong words from Turkey, and signs of an unusual convergence of Syrian and Turkish foreign policy objectives. In the cross-hairs are 2,000 […]

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Nearly a year after Trump bombed Syria, al-Assad and Russia extend control

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Syrian war limps along at the margins. It is over where it matters but continues in key demographic pockets. The two most significant are East Ghouta near the al-Assad-held capital of Damascus and the province of Idlib in the northwest of the country. East Ghouta […]

Donald Trump

America’s Biggest Mideast Foreign Policy Challenges in 2018

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In some ways, the United States faces a more favorable foreign policy environment in 2018 than it has in some years, with regard to facts on the ground. Ironically, some of the more severe challenges emanate not from objective conditions abroad but from the erratic and […]

Bashar al-Assad

Russia: Permanent Bases planned in Syria to fight Terrorism

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (informed Comment) | – – The US military says that the number of ISIL fighters in eastern Syria has fallen from 3000 a month ago to only 1000 today. Moreover a lot of the latter are fleeing into al-Assad-controlled territory, a severe security concern for the Syrian state. The US is […]

Bashar al-Assad

Putin’s talk of Draw Down in Syria isn’t about Russia leaving, but staying

contributors

By Moritz Pieper | (The Conversation) | – – Standing on the Russian military airbase at Khmeimim on his December visit to Syria, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia will withdraw the bulk of its forces from Syria following the “successful intervention” in Syria’s armed conflict. This is Putin’s second withdrawal announcement within two years. And […]

Bashar al-Assad

Will Trump manage to stab both Syrian Kurds and Turkey in the Back at same time?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump is alleged to have promised Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan that he will cease arming the YPG Kurds in Syria. This news comes just around the time there is a flurry of articles about how the Trump administration wants to stay long term in eastern Syria, […]

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Lebanese PM Hariri arrives in or Escapes to France

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri arrived Saturday morning with his family in Paris, after a two-week stay in Saudi Arabia, where he is a dual citizen and has a mansion. Lebanese president Michel Aoun had charged that Saudi Arabia had taken Hariri hostage, but the latter […]

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After Trump lets hundreds of ISIL Leave Raqqa, Turkey Enraged

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – On Tuesday, Turkey lambasted the US and its largely Kurdish allies in Syria, the YPG, for having made a deal that allowed 250 Daesh fighters and all their children and relatives to flee from Raqqa. Turkey’s prime minister Binali Yildirim said, “The YPG terrorists let Daesh […]

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Syria: If ISIL is dire threat, why isn’t its Defeat bigger News?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Syrian regime announced Wednesday that its army, supported by the Lebanese Shiite militia, Hizbullah and Iraqi Shiite militia, took control of the city of Al-Bu Kamal, the last base for ISIL on the Syrian-Iraqi border, after battles with the terrorist organization. At the same time, […]