... West, including Europe, are on the losing side of the conflict in Syria and this automatically limits leverage
During the 11
th
... ... Syrian constitution talks, how the U.S. is exerting pressure on Iran via sanctions and what the EU and Russia have in common when ... ... you make of his death and what consequences could that have for ISIS and international terrorism as a whole?
Andrey Kortunov, Michel ... ... of a risk. The main priority now is to resolve the issue for thousands of ISIS fighters and affiliates, as well as wives and children ...
... partners can arguably win the war, but they cannot win the peace in Syria
Historically, the Middle East has never been a Russia’s ... ... trade and investment, in energy and in tourism. The second was Iran — another difficult ally, which played an active role in ... ... significant adjustments in the Russian strategy.
First, the defeat of ISIS, which is definitely a positive development for everybody ... ... of the conflict. The risks of alienating either Teheran or Jerusalem, or even both of them, are on the rise.
Finally, if Damascus ...
... bombings in recent days that have targeted Turkmen—on the border area of Turkey and Syria. Turkey is supporting these Turkmen rebels against Assad that Russia is bombing... ... massacre mainly Sunni rebels and civilians with the help of Shiite Hezbollah and Shiite Iran just for Russia's having a naval base on Syria’s coast and a few... ... Egypt’s own explosive and volatile domestic security situation with its own people and an ISIS franchise running amok in the Sinai (one which apparently was able to blow up a...
...
AMMAN — Anyone who’s been paying attention to the Syrian vortex of death, and Russia’s role in this vortex,... ... intervention as Russia taking a responsible and leading role in combating ISIS and preserving state sovereignty/the world order; this in ... ... like all of Catholic Europe will be sending holy warriors in a crusade to fight Orthodox Russia’s attempts to annex the ethnic ... ... controlled mainly by Alawate Shiites. It is backed by Shiite Persian Iranians and the Arab Shiite Lebanese militia Hezbollah. Sunni ...
A Sensible Grading of Obama’s Middle East Strategy: The Syrian Civil War
Grading Obama on what has—and has not—been done by his ... ... Syria is currently the largest and deadliest. Here, as in other situations, we have a crisis in which we must be careful not to blame Obama too much but must also note the... ... military was much stronger and, unlike Qaddafi’s, had strong patrons in Russia and Iran who would complicate and increase the costs of any Western intervention and made...
... a residual force would have been better but that is 100% on Maliki not granting immunity and having already committed to his Iranian allies that he would see our troops out in 2011. We will come to ISIS (and Obama’s mild military reengagement in Iraq) and Syria as separate issues.
Israeli/Palestinian Peace
Here, one may be tempted to make more of the efforts of the Obama Administration ... ... Israel announced the construction of 1,600 settlement housing units to be built on illegally occupied, disputed land in East Jerusalem (which was occupied in 1967 along with the West Bank and Gaza and which Israel has held in defiance of multiple binding ...
... back to haunt us: though Joe Biden recently got in trouble for saying so, support for ISIS and other Islamic extremists and terrorists from very wealthy individuals motivated... ... the top recipients of U.S. foreign aid, Obama and Americans, as was/is the case in Syria and Iraq, seems to prefer a “don’t do stupid shit” (to quote... ... pariah within the Western world.
4.) There’s a good chance for a thaw/deal with Iran in the near future.
More than any president since the Iranian Revolution in 1979...
... extremists, especially in Iraq’s western Anbar province on Syria’s border, saw the defeat of al-Qaeda in Iraq/Mesopotamia ... ... first the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/the Levant/al-Sham (ISIS or ISIL) and now just Islamic State (IS) might possibly have ... ... not least among the reasons, ISIS was murdering and abusing thousands in ways that even al-Qaeda thought went too far. Christians,... ... would also strengthen an Iraqi government that was in line with Iran in many ways and had resisted accommodating the U.S. government ...