Search Results for: "Syria"
Brina Seidel / May 4, 2013 6:02 pm
As the number of Syrian refugees climbs rapidly beyond 1 million, the need for increased funding to address the crisis is obvious, but the motivation for nations to actually provide those funds is not. The United Nation’s relief plan requests just over a billion dollars to fund its operations from January 2013 to June 2013, and a variety of donors pledged to meet those needs. Yet somehow, the latest report on the inter-agency regional res...
Joshua Fattal / May 21, 2012 9:52 pm
Photo by Elizabeth Arrott/VOA, from Wikimedia Commons Today we are able to sit with our laptops and tablets and watch the horrors of a regime slaughtering its own people. But despicable as this inaction is, posting filmed clips on YouTube has become one of the only viable means for the Syrian people to call out for help. And what we’ve seen of Bashar al-Assad brutal crackdown provides much reason to despair. Five days ago a video was released t...
Nadine Mansour / October 10, 2012 11:45 pm
photo from Wikimedia Commons The Alliance Program in cooperation with SIPA and the Middle East Institute hosted the French Ambassador to the U.N., Gérard Araud, who discussed the crisis in Syria along with Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies History & MESAAS. As a member of the Security Council, Araud provided a technical lens on the current impasse. Considering the conflicting state interests of the P5, the U.N. wi...
Joshua Fattal / August 15, 2012 11:11 pm
From Wikimedia Commons The tide seems to be irrevocably turning in Syria, the latest Arab country trying desperately to spring. The Free Syrian Army, that sectarian, untrustworthy, and brave coalition of Syrians, has for the first time announced and penned its commitment to human rights last week. The FSA might have brought down a Syrian fighter jet, a first, on Sunday. But things are still going horribly, horribly wrong. Amnesty International...
Nadine Mansour / May 21, 2012 10:12 pm
photo by Elizabeth Arrott/VOA, from Wikimedia Commons The “Syria is not Libya” argument against intervention that seems to be taken up by NATO, along with sustained failure of the U.N. Security Council to reach a unanimous vote on intervention in Syria has prolonged the struggle for a solution to the situation. Furthermore, last week, the head of Syria’s most visible yet seemingly rifting opposition force, the Syrian National Council (SNC) note...
Tommaso Verderame / August 14, 2012 5:26 pm
From Wikimedia Commons Last week, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Joe Lieberman coauthored an op-ed that advocates that the United States arm Syria’s rebels. They argued that Syria’s rebels are not on a level playing field – al-Assad has a modern army and friends like Russia and China – and that, in the long run, the U.S. is in the best position if it curries favor with rebel groups now. For similar reasons, I agree. The senators coyly point...
Hadi Elzayn / October 3, 2011 5:30 pm
I’ll be writing this column, focused on the Middle East, for the year. While some of you may be well-versed in the culture and history of the region or even may be from one of the many ethnicities and peoples that call that area home, others may be unfamiliar with it. My column coincides with my personal journey as well; although I am of Lebanese and Syrian descent, I was born in America and was raised initially with little idea of the distinct...
Nadine Mansour / August 2, 2012 11:44 am
It’s not news that our hands have been tied in Syria because of the UN Security Council’s inability to resolve the matter. The UN’s inability to ameliorate the situation has spurred individual stakeholders to meddle in Syria and push their own, often conflicting interests. The prolongation of the revolution into a year-and-a-half long civil war has necessitated that Syrian forces organize from outside the country, and for other states intereste...
Hadi Elzayn / January 30, 2012 2:00 pm
...hether Iran is signaling that it will cave to the strong economic and political pressure it has been subjected to or if it is merely stalling for time. On another front, the United Nations has announced that the death toll in Syria has become too large to count; in any case, both the number of deaths and the announcement that the Free Syrian Army (FSA) seems to have certain cities and territories under its control, as well as the announcement tha...
Hadi Elzayn / February 27, 2012 1:10 pm
Two columns ago, I wrote about Syria’s importance in the regional rivalry between Iran and Israel. I hoped to give the context of the wider geopolitical climate and how that affected responses to the uprisings. But perhaps I should have taken more time to make clear what is becoming necessary to acknowledge: The facile idea of a pure dichotomy of America and Israel against its enemies is too simplistic. Recalibrating this perspective is even...
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