Friday 3/9/2010
Steven Walt on the direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians is appropriately pessimistic. Peter Harling and Robert Malley in Foreign Affairs argue that Obama must not use a simplistic measure for friends and enemies in the Middle East. They should not push Turkey, Qatar and even Syria aside because these countries refuse to follow the US on the Israel issue. ( See excerpts below) Their advice is sound,
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Aron Lund The Syria Muslim Botherhood: Leadership Transition from Bayanouni to Shaqfa By Aron Lund Syria Comment, Aug. 21, 2010 I saw the note about the Muslim Brotherhood in your latest blog post. However, what’s really worth pointing out — it’s mentioned briefly in the Khaleej article — is the fact that they’ve elected a new general inspector and top leadership. Ali Sadreddin el-Bayanouni held the post for 14 years, but has now, or
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I have returned from Vermont and having no internet. I thank Alex for helping keep SC hobbling along while I was off line. Here are a few articles of interest that appeared over the last two weeks. Best, Joshua SYRIAN ECONOMY Iraq to Allow Iranian Gas Pipeline to Syria, VOA News 12 August 2010 Iraq says it has agreed to allow its neighbor, Iran, to build a natural gas pipeline to Syria through
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Joshua Landis will be traveling for two weeks. He will leave SC in the capable hands of Alex. Lebanese PM calms fears over naming Hizbollah in Hariri inquiry Mitchell Prothero, Foreign Correspondent July 24. 2010 Hasan Nasrallah has refused to discuss Hizbollah’s response if some of its members are indicted in the assassination of Rafiq Hariri. Wael Hamzeh / EPA BEIRUT // The potential indictment of Hizbollah members by an international tribunal investigating the 2005
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I received this opinion piece by Elie ElHadj and agreed to publish it, although I have edited it for length. I hesitated before agreeing to publish it because the opinions expressed are controversial and stated powerfully; the open discussion of religious topics is often frowned upon in Syria because of the potential for stirring up sectarian hard feelings. I decided to publish it anyway, because debate is good and because
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Summer in Syria: Who should be wearing the Niqab Syria: A decade on Syria, Volume 185 Oxford Business Group 21.07.2010 This month marks the tenth year of Bashar Al Assad’s presidency of Syria, a decade of steady reform which has seen greater economic freedoms extended to several sectors – notably banking and financial services – as part of a transformation from a socialist to a “social market” economy. Al
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The Hariri Murder Investigation: T_desco has provided this report on as-Safir’s treatment of news that Hizbullah members will be named in the Hariri Investigation. I thank him. Even if Hizbullah members are implicated in the murder, many questions will still be asked: Did Hizbullah initiate the assassination planning? How much did either Iran or Syria know or approve of the action. As Safir: Ex-U.S. Official: It Was Obvious Syrians Were
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CBS news reports that “The government of Syria has already reassigned hundreds of niqab-wearing school-teachers to administrative offices where they would not have contact with students.” AP’s Edward Yeranian writes that the recent ban “follows a decision last month to dismiss 1200 Syrian school teachers who wear the face veil in class. Education officials, at the time, stressed that Syria was a “secular society,” and
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The Human Rights Watch report, “A Wasted Decade: Human Rights in Syria during Bashar al-Asad’s First Ten Years in Power.” Syria’s Decade of Repression By: Nadim Houry | The Guardian What is clear from a review of Assad’s decade in power is that he has no true commitment to broadening public freedoms for Syria’s citizens, perhaps the most repressed in the entire Arab world. What initiatives he has taken have been limited at
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Can banning the Niqab really work? There is something ironic in Syria banning the niqab, or full head cover. When I first arrived in Damascus in 1981 to go to the University of Damascus and live in wahda al-uwla in the University City, the hijab, or scarf used by women to cover their hair, was banned. Many women defied the ban and wore it on campus anyway, but it was perhaps
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Syrian Politics, History and Religion