Given the atrocities currently committed in Syria and the spectacularly bad press this generates for the regime, one would think that issuing an effective petition calling for political change in this country would be an easy task. All such a petition needs to do is to jump on the bandwagon of rapidly mounting protests […]
Geography Archives: Syria
Demystifying Syria
Two relationships have long been key to the stability of the Syrian regime. The first is an economic relationship: the regime puts back into national production just enough to create jobs and produce cheap national goods to keep the working population in steady or, better yet improving, living conditions. The second is a political […]
Russia Defends Syria from Outside Interference
United Nations, April 27 (Xinhua) — Russia said here on Wednesday that the current situation in Syria, despite an increase in tension and confrontation, does not threaten international peace and security, but “a real threat to regional security . . . could arise from outside interference in Syria’s domestic situation.” Alexander Pankin, Russia’s deputy permanent […]
Stop Violence Now and Start National Dialogue!
The statement of the Syrian Communist Party (Unified) on the urgency to stop violence immediately and to start comprehensive national dialogue O, the masses of our people! The bloody events that have taken place in some governorates of Syria for more than a month, especially in the last several days of this month, are heartbreaking, […]
Chávez Condemns Plot against Syria
Caracas, 25 April (PL) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said today that the government of Syria is a victim of a plot to justify future actions — including military ones — against it. “They are infiltrating terrorists into Syria and causing violence and deaths, and all of a sudden the president is pronounced guilty, immediately, […]
Lying in Wait for Opportunity in Syria
Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela. His cartoons frequently appear in Aporrea and Rebelión among other sites. Cf. “Lebanon: Saad Hariri Calls for Syrian Regime Change; Maybe Iran Too” (24 August 2006, leaked to WikiLeaks, published in Al-Akhbar); “Turkey Comments on Syrian Ihvan’s Meeting in Istanbul” (World Bulletin, 2 April 2011); المراقب العام للأخوان […]
Al Jazeera’s Beirut Bureau Chief, Ghassan Ben Jeddo, Resigns
As-Safir, a left-wing Lebanese newspaper, first reported on Saturday that Al Jazeera’s Beirut bureau chief Ghassan Ben Jeddo resigned. The news has now been confirmed by Al-Manar, which has interviewed Ben Jeddo. According to As-Safir, Ben Jeddo resigned first and foremost because “Al Jazeera abandoned an ideal of objectivity and professionalism and resorted to gutter […]
Regarding Syria
A regular meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Syria, chaired by its Secretary General Comrade Ammar Bakdash, was held on 25 March 2011. . . . The Central Committee examined at length the manifestations of unrest in some cities in Syria, especially the unfortunate incidents in the town of Dara’a. […]
The Arab Spring and the Saudi Counter-Revolution
We return from a recent trip to the region persuaded that the main question engaging people with respect to the “Arab spring” is no longer “who’s next,” but rather “how far will Saudi Arabia go in pushing a counter-revolutionary agenda” across the Middle East? Whether Saudi Arabia is really capable of coping with the momentous […]
Disinformation about Syria in Western Media
A number of news reports by AFP, the Guardian, and other news agencies and outlets are suggesting that Syrian security forces were responsible for shooting nine Syrian soldiers, who were killed in Banyas on Sunday. Some versions insist that they were shot for refusing orders to shoot at demonstrators. Considerable evidence suggests that this is […]
(Former) Communists for Liberal Democracy
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 Yassin Al-Hajj Saleh in the New York Times Of course, Saleh suffered from the brutality of the Syrian regime and I share many of his criticisms of the Syrian regime although I don’t share his decision to write about Syria in racist anti-Syrian (people) right-wing publications, like An-Nahar and Al-Hayat […]
“Artists in Exile: Forgotten Iraqi Refugees in Syria”: Interview with Mel Lehman of Common Humanity
“Syria hosts the largest number of Iraqi refugees who have fled their home since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Estimates as to how many refugees are huddled in Syria vary, but most organizations estimate that roughly 1.2-1.5 million Iraqis have staked a temporary claim on neighboring soil. ‘Temporary,’ however, is a relative time-frame for the […]
Sectarian Slogans in Syria
There are some sectarian slogans being chanted by SOME (not all) protesters in Syria (they refer to the need for “Sunnis who fear God”). It is an opportunity to make this point: if one supports protests and revolutions against all Arab regimes (and Iran), it does not follow that one should endorse all strands […]
Whither Syria?
Flynt Leverett, a professor of international affairs at Penn State and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, is the author of Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s Trial by Fire. Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is the author of the forthcoming book In the Lion’s Den: An Eyewitness […]
Egypt, Iran, and the Middle East’s Evolving Balance of Power
The full extent of the ramifications of the extraordinary developments in Egypt since the beginning of this year — for Egypt itself, for the Middle East, and for the world — will not be clear for some time. At this juncture, though, it seems virtually certain that post-Mubarak Egypt will have a much more balanced […]
Who Rules Syria and How? Interview with Joshua Landis
Paul Jay: The title of your upcoming book, Syria’s Democratic Experiment, first of all, what is the experiment? And then talk a little about how we got there. Joshua Landis: Well, the book really deals with a period at the time of independence — 1946, ’45, ’46 — in Syria, when the French left and […]
Libya and the Laws of War: Interview with Michael Mandel
With respect to international law, in what ways does this intervention in Libya differ from those carried out in Afghanistan and Iraq? The intervention in Afghanistan, despite protestations to the contrary, was not authorized by the Security Council, whose relevant resolutions did not even mention Afghanistan, let alone authorize “all necessary means.” That was because […]
America’s Libyans
The Benghazi council chose as its leader the colorless former justice minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil. Jalil’s brain is Mahmoud Jibril, a former head of the National Economic Development Board (NEDB). A U.S. embassy cable from May 11, 2009 (09TRIPOLI386) describes Jibril as keen on a close relationship with the U.S. and eager “to create a […]
Syria: Banias Refinery Workers March for Syria and Bashar
Could it be that Syrian refinery workers thought it wise to warn imperialists not to descend on Syria to liberate their oil and jobs from them in the name of liberating them from Bashar? — Ed. Tartous, Syria, 29 March 2011 Cf. “Syria is the only significant crude oil producing country in the Eastern Mediterranean […]
Why Has the Syrian Opposition Failed to Grow? Interview with Bassam Haddad
Paul Jay: So, first of all, talk about what happened on Friday. The protesters, the opposition, were hoping for a big turnout, and apparently they didn’t get it. Bassam Haddad: On Friday, a few hundred people, in some places more than a thousand, came out in protest, to continue the string of protests since last […]
