On October 6th, President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States troops from Syria on Twitter. Trump made it one of his campaign promises to remove all U.S. troops from Syria. As a result of the removal of U.S. troops, Turkey has launched military offensives with air strikes and ground offensives into Syria, causing thousands of Syrians to… Read more »
The US is on a roll right now after abandoning the Kurds who have been an important ally for them in their fight against the Islamic State. This has caused Turkey to penetrate 19 miles into Syria causing thousands of civilians to flee. Turkish Air raids have killed hundreds of Kurds, in addition the Turks have committed war crimes against… Read more »
US. commanders leading the war on ISIS are trying to extricate troops from Syria in an orderly manner. This is the only orderly thing that seems to be happening in Syria. The Assad regime was rushing to control checkpoints at key locations while Turkey pressed its offensive on October 15, just nine days after the White House decided to wrap… Read more »
Key point: A series of missteps has undermined the Kingdom when it can least afford it. In 680 CE, less than fifty years after the death of Prophet Muhammad, an army of over thirty thousand men was deployed by thirty-three-year-old Umayyad Caliph Yazid to confront a tiny group of seventy-two people led by the prophet’s grandson, Hussein ibn Ali, who had… Read more »
Vladimir Putin is in a Middle Eastern wonderland this week. With perfect timing, his regional interests are all coming together. Precipitously betraying those who suffered thousands killed in action to defeat the Islamic State, President Trump has painted himself as unreliable and America as unworthy of alliance. Visiting the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Monday, Putin will have offered those… Read more »
The phone conversation between Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdogan is having catastrophic results. The green light the U.S. president gave his Turkish counterpart on October 6 (even if Trump later clumsily tried to play down its significance) has produced tremors that have completely changed the situation in northern Syria, already affecting the strategic picture across the entire Middle East…. Read more »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Driven from his hometown in northeast Syria as bombs rained down in a Turkish assault, a Kurdish father worried for his toddler son, who was ill, and accused America of betraying the Kurds in the region. Agid Meshmesh escaped from the mainly Kurdish border town of Kobani on Monday after he couldn’t get food or diapers for… Read more »
Lebanon has asked for international help battling hundreds of forest fires that broke out on Monday and have spread abroad. The blazes – the worst in decades – started in Lebanon’s western mountains, amid a heatwave and strong winds. Heavy smoke was seen over Beirut and the city of Sidon, and one volunteer firefighter reportedly died. Two forestry workers have… Read more »
Damascus has much to gain from deal with Kurds, but its ability to halt Turkey’s push depends on Russia, say analysts. In a major shift in alliances, the Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria announced on Sunday a deal with President Bashar al-Assad‘s government to allow Syrian troops to deploy along the border with Turkey to stave off a military offensive by Ankara. The pact, brokered by… Read more »
President Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. President Donald Trump that Turkey will never declare a ceasefire in northeastern Syria and that it will not negotiate with Kurdish forces it is fighting in its offensive into the region. Turkey pressed ahead with its offensive against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria on Tuesday despite U.S. sanctions and calls for it to stop,… Read more »