“Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.” ― Winston S. Churchill I will not say I predicted the emergence for a post-Daesh NATO-like coalition among those who had been targeted for destruction by the real War of Terror crowd. But I certainly …
Continue reading Shifting Sands in a Post-Daesh Mid East
On February 3, in Idlib Province a Russian Su-25 attack aircraft carrying out an inspection flight in the de-escalation zone was hit by an American-made portable surface-to-air missile. Its pilot, Roman Filipov, ejected from the aircraft and landed, and started to defend himself. For some time he fired shots from his service gun and finally …
Continue reading Syria: the War has Finished – but the War is Continuing
A superficial reading of “Operation Olive Branch” indicates that it’s a Turkish-Kurdish war, but the details of who’s fighting make it look a lot more like a Daesh civil war in its opening stages, and that’s exactly what both Ankara and the YPG originally intended. The commencement of Turkey’s “Operation Olive Branch” has led to …
In early December, Putin was way premature claiming ISIS and other (US-supported) terrorists defeated in Syria. He erred in returning most Russian forces home, believing a small remaining contingent enough to help government and allied forces achieve conflict resolution, along with talks in Astana, Geneva and Sochi. Following Russia’s partial withdrawal, ISIS is resurgent thanks to …
Continue reading War in Syria Rages, Resurgence of ISIS-Daesh
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have followed the United States in funding a five-nation armed force designed to stop the march of Islamist extremists in Africa. But why is the Sahel, a semi-arid region just south of the Sahara Desert, causing alarm? Saudi Arabia pledged US$100 million December 13 towards a special anti-terror force …
Continue reading The Southern Front: Why Saudi Arabia, UAE Gave US$130 Million to Africa Force
Members of the Washington administration, who claim to govern the whole world, every day surprise everyone with their political short-sightedness. For example, United States Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson called on the pro-Iranian armed groups fighting Islamists on Iraqi territory to “return home” because the war with DAISH is coming to an end. It …
Continue reading Middle East: the Fleeting Mirages of the United States
Kurdish Democratic Union Party co-chairman Shahoz Hasan said that his organization’s objective is to impose its system of so-called “democratic autonomy” all over Syria, and despite denying that this amounts to a de-facto internal partition, it’s hard to argue that it’s anything but. Moreover, the Syrian Kurds also just announced that they’ll be annexing Daesh’s …
Continue reading The Kurds Want a “Federal” Regime Change in Syria
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Riyadh where he partook in a trilateral meeting with the Saudi and Iraqi leaders. The two Arab states have been moving closer to one another recently, with Saudi Arabia even hosting Shiite cleric and militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr earlier this year in a bid to strengthen its …
Continue reading Assessing the US-Backed Iraqi-Saudi Rapprochement
In moving to reassert control of the city of Kirkuk from the Kurds, who hitherto had controlled the city under the aegis of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the Iraqi government has acted in full accordance with its legal and moral rights. The tragedy of the Kurds both of Syria and Iraq is that they …
Continue reading Kirkuk Crisis and the Iraqi Government’s Absolute Right to Restore Its Writ
