That which has not been achieved on the battlefield can rarely be achieved at the negotiation table, and the harsh reality facing Syria’s opposition is that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has not been defeated, nor is it …
Qatar
As Assad ‘Accepts’ Peace Plan, Can Syria Reset its Rebellion?
Three sets of meetings in different capitals on Tuesday offer a bleak reminder that Syria’s uprising against President Bashar al-Assad faces something of a do-over. Syrian opposition figures are gathered in Istanbul at the behest …
As Kofi Annan Arrives to Mediate, Syria’s Assad Regime is Far From Beaten
The defection of Syria’s deputy oil minister to the country’s year-old rebellion briefly captured headlines on Thursday, hailed in the West as a hopeful sign that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad may be starting to …
Hamas Signals Break with Iran, But Is That Good for Israel?
A popular Washington illusion once held that the right combination of incentives and punishments might “peel off” Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad from Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” but nobody would have predicted that the weak …
Can Syria’s Assad Fight His Way to Political Survival?
Despite the death and destruction his security forces are raining down on opposition-held neighborhoods in Syria, President Bashar Assad is unlikely to succeed in crushing a year-old rebellion. International revulsion at the …
Talks with the Taliban Are Inevitable, but Who Will Be at the Table?
The fact that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has told the Wall Street Journal he’s held three-way negotiations with the U.S. and the Taliban should come as no surprise: the U.S. has said that within two years it will end its …
Peacekeepers for Syria? Not While There’s No Peace to Keep
As Arab and Western diplomats work to fashion tools to pressure the Syrian regime to end its military response to a year-old rebellion, an unrelenting artillery exacts a terrible daily toll on the residents of rebel-held Sunni …
Why Syrians Fight, and Why Their Civil War May be a Long One
The reason that there’s no plausible end-game in Syria anytime soon — and that thousands more Syrians may be fated to die before the conflict is ended — is that the Assad regime is fighting a very different war to the one …
Russia and China Challenge the West on Syria: What Implications for Iran?
The breach among the Permanent Five members of the U.N. Security Council in Saturday’s vote on Syria’s increasingly bloody power struggle could have profound implications for Syria’s immediate future. But it may also signal …
Jordan Allows Hamas to Take Up Residence on Its Soil
In what sure looks like further evidence of diminishing American influence in the Middle East, the country that summarily ejected Hamas a dozen years ago is opening its doors to senior leaders of the group Washington and Israel …
Can Pakistan’s Liberals Be Saved?
This week marked a year after the assassination of Pakistani politician and Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer. On Jan. 4, 2011, a guard tasked to protect Taseer gunned him down, angered by the much-respected politico’s defense of …
Why Qatari Owners of Paris’ Soccer Team Hanker For Aging Englishman Beckham
Why does perennially under-performing Paris Saint-Germain of France’s anemic professional soccer league see hiring a fading star at over $1 million per month as vital to assuring its future? Because the aging player in question …
The Syria Game of Thrones: Turkey vs. Iran vs. the Saudis in Battle to Shape a Rebellion’s Outcome
The Arab League called Wednesday for “urgent measures” to protect Syrian civilians in the face of violent repression by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. But lest anyone take that as an echo of the call that legitimized the NATO-led military operation in Libya, the League’s statement also rejected “all foreign intervention” …