The Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Ankara ended in a trilateral summit with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. These state leaders’ joint statement reaffirms their determination to cooperate in the final defeating of the Islamic State (ISIL), the Al-Nusra Front and other extremist groups. The critical importance…
So, the world is counting the hours to see whether the US and its allies will launch a military strike on Syria. If this war plan goes ahead, the attack will be furious – and the repercussions grave, as Russia sternly warned this week. Indeed, we are talking about the very real danger that any US-led…
French President Emmanuel Macron kept his word. On April 1-2, French troops moved into northern Syria. This is the first time France deployed substantial forces there to turn Paris into a new actor actively involved in the war. The troops advanced toward Manbij and Remelin to join American allies and did it hastily. The move was…
French President Emmanuel Macron entertained a Syrian Kurdish delegation last Thursday. He praised the Kurdish-dominated SDF militias for their role in fighting ISIS and promised continued support. After the meeting Kurdish and French media outlets reported Macron had also promised to move French troops to Kurdish-held Manbij in northern Syria, and block the advance of…
There was something refreshing about watching former French president Nicholas Sarkozy being interrogated in a French jail. Particularly since he may soon be accused of conspiracy in the murder of my old friend, Col. Muammar Khadaffi of Libya. Sarkozy and his former chief of staff, Claude Guéant, are being investigated for secretly accepting at least…
Trump’s surprise announcement that the US will be “coming out” of Syria “very, very soon” probably won’t lead to the full-fledged retreat that some people are expecting, but this tactical downscaling would nevertheless be a response to the “Rojava Civil War” if it does indeed happen, and the influence of Turkey’s looming anti-terrorist intervention in…
