I was recently asked by a reader to update two of my past articles, Iran’s asymmetrical response options and For Israel war is the continuation of national suicide by other means, and that is an excellent idea, considering that the first one was written in 2007 and the second one in 2010. I did touch upon these issues in a more recent article, Iran in the crosshair again, which does
By Pepe Escobar for the Asia Times Here’s a crash course on the “democratic” machinations of the Arab League – rather the GCC League, as real power in this pan-Arab organization is wielded by two of the six Persian Gulf monarchies composing the Gulf Cooperation Council, also known as Gulf Counter-revolution Club; Qatar and the House of Saud. Essentially, the GCC created an Arab League group to monitor what’s going
This has been a good day for Russia. First, Russia and China both vetoed the US/NATO UNSC demanding regime change in Syria. Second, the various demonstrations which took place in Moscow showed that no “Orange Revolution” is likely to take place in Russia, at least not in the foreseeable future. Here is what took place at the UNSC: As for the demonstrations in Moscow, here is what took place: The
The BBC reports: Russia’s deputy foreign minister says his country “cannot support” a draft United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria. According to the Interfax news agency, Gennady Gatilov said that despite changes that took some of its concerns into account, Russia could not support the text in its current form. “This is not enough for us,” he said. The resolution, drafted by European and Arab countries, endorses an Arab
This is encouraging. To my surprise, and relief, it appears that Russia refused cave in the the US/NATO demands on Syria and that they two key provisions (regime change, weapons embargo) were dropped from the next UNSC Resolution. Good. As you probably know, I am not exactly an Assad fanboy, but turning Syria into the next Libya would be a disaster for the entire region and a calamity for the
I took quick look this afternoon at the headlines on the (always excellent) Information Clearing House (which, by the way, is in great need of financial help!) and I saw these: Plan for No Fly Zone Over Syria U.S. Urges Americans to Leave Syria “Immediately” David Cameron: War looms in Syria France Considers ‘Humanitarian Corridors’ in Syria Perry Calls for No-Fly Zone In Syria, Would Act Unilaterally Without UN Authorization
