(Middle East Eye)- Allowing aid into besieged areas of Syria has proven to be a successful diplomatic tool for negotiating, but civilians always pay the price for these truces On 13 December 2016, Bashar Jaafari, the current permanent representative of Syria to the United Nations, declared:...

The Obama administration imposed sanctions Thursday on a son of Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, saying the younger bin Laden poses a risk to U.S. national security. The State Department said Hamza bin Laden has been added to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list after he was...

By Hassan Hassan (The National)- The battle for Mosul resumed on Thursday after a two-week operational pause. During the pause, according to Arabic reports, Baghdad came under increased pressure to allow at least two militia organisations to join the operations inside Mosul. Banning such...

(Al Jazeera)- It is safe to say that, until recently, the debate over Syria's political future came down to one thing: the fate of President Bashar al-Assad. With his victory in Aleppo, and the firm support of Iran and Russia, it is also fairly safe to say that the Syrian president's future is...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- By reading the deal signed between the Syrian opposition factions, Turkey, and Russia we can conclude that this agreement is at its core a political deal and not an agreement to a ceasefire. The aim of the agreement is for both sides to form a delegation to participate in the...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The military expert Ismail Eyub considered that five core reasons pushed Russia, in cooperation with Turkey, to impose the ceasefire in Syria although Russian President Vladimir Putin described the ceasefire as “fragile.” In a statement to zaman al-Wasl, Eyub mentioned that...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Perhaps 2016 is the ultimate year of forced displacement. And how can it be considered otherwise when it was witness to the largest operation of forced displacement undertaken against the residents of Aleppo, the economic and industrial capital of Syria, following a...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The level of American-Turkish tension increased recently following American President Barack Obama supplying the Syrian Democratic Forces with a large shipment of weapons which will enter Syria from Iraq.  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hastened to...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- We do not contradict the truth if we say that 2016 is ISIS year in Homs Province. ISIS surprise attacks on Homs eastern countryside confused the regime and its mercenaries and their strategic alley, Russia. ISIS caused huge loss for regime in souls and military gear estimated...

(Wall Street Journal)- The cradle of the Arab Spring, Tunisia remains the freest Arab democracy. It has one of the region’s most developed economies and highest literacy rates. And it is also by far the largest source of foreign fighters heading to join Islamic State in Syria and Iraq....

(Washington Examiner)- In his year-end press conference, President Obama reflected on the tragedy that has befallen Aleppo, Syria, where Iranian-backed militias and Russian warplanes helped Syrian dictator Bashar Assad reclaim the city and conduct a crime against humanity rivaling Rwanda and...

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the most powerful person in Turkey in almost a century, rivaled only by Ataturk — the secular founder of the republic. Erdogan first assumed power as prime minister in 2003, and in 2014 he won elections to become president. After already having controlled...

“Responsibility for this brutality lies in one place alone, with the Assad regime and its allies, Russia and Iran,” President Obama said last week of the barbarity in Aleppo, Syria, “and this blood and these atrocities are on their hands.” My journalism students and I here in Dubai follow...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- He is known by the common people as al-Sheikh Yapraq without this name having to do with anything related to the truth of the shrine’s owner, his position and mission which raise him to the position of the real founder of al-Nusairiyah sect and who placed its rules being its...

As counterintuitive as it may sound, ISIL will still be stronger than Al Qaeda in Syria even after the former is dislodged from Mosul and Raqqa. Many counterterrorism experts have argued in recent months that it is time to turn attention towards Syria’s Jabhat Fateh Al Sham, formerly known...

Frederic C. Hof is director of the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. He advised Hillary Clinton on Syria at the State Department in 2012. Some 70 months ago, unarmed, ordinary Syrians rose peacefully against a regime whose incompetence and corruption they had come...

The fall of Aleppo is a human catastrophe. It’s also a demonstration of the perils of choosing the middle course in a military conflict. Sometimes it’s possible to talk and fight at the same time. But in Syria, the U.S. decision to pursue a dual-track, halfway approach made the mayhem worse....

(The Guardian)- While US and European politicians wring their hands and indulge in recriminations over the fall of Aleppo, Russia, Iran and Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime are celebrating a “historic” victory they believe has turned the tide in the six-year-old war. “Is there nothing...

By Ethar Abduhaq (Zaman Al Wasl)- Zaman al-Wasl followed with great interest the news and reports of Russia media regarding Moscow sending a group of what is known as the Chechen special forces. The forces add to the long list of Bashar Assad loyalists who fight with him against the Syrian...

(The Guardian)- The fall of Aleppo will neither end the conflict nor bring more stability to the country. The continuing offensive by the Syrian regime to capture the rest of the eastern side of the city has led to the capture of about 75% of the rebel-held area. But the regime’s swift advances...