Al-Assad supporters among those fleeing likely strike
The Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria has been like a beehive since the early hours of Saturday, receiving a new wave of Syrians shortly after the UN weapons…
Iranian and Hezbollah commanders help direct Houthi attacks in Yemen
DUBAI: Commanders from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group are on the ground in Yemen helping to direct and oversee Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping,…
China and Russia find common cause in Israel-Hamas crisis
With anger building across the Middle East over Israel’s strikes in Gaza, China and Russia are finding common cause with countries across the region in support of the Palestinians. For…
Rekindling relations
After closed-door negotiations from March 6 to March 10 in Beijing, China, a joint trilateral statement by China, Saudi Arabia and Iran announced the rekindling of good neighbourly relations between…
Cause of war
“Never let a good crisis go to waste”, is a quote often misattributed to Winston Churchill. It could also be the motto of the fossil fuel industry. The day before…
Renewed US-Russia rift threatens slim Syria peace hope
The latest US and Russian bid to find enough common ground on which to build some hope for Syria is in trouble, just days ahead of talks that could make…
Border policing
On September 22, as I descended from the ferry into the bustling port of Lesbos, Greece, I was stopped by a police officer. “Don’t worry, it’s just a security check,”…
Arabs ease Assad’s isolation as US looks elsewhere
While Bashar al-Assad is still shunned by the West who blame him for a decade of brutal war in Syria, a shift is under way in the Middle East where…
Iran and the sanctions
The recent decision of the Iranian government aimed at curtailing the powers and rights of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s officials is very unfortunate. Tehran has reduced the access of…
The real villain
WHEN arrangements were underway last year for an unlikely meeting at Camp David between Donald Trump and the Taliban, it was decided at the highest levels of the US government…
