As international pressure on Iran has mounted due to its accelerating uranium enrichment, its foiled plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., and its systematic human rights abuses, the embattled regime in Tehran has lashed out verbally against Turkey, Britain, Israel, and the United States. On Saturday, General …
U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford is home following an informal and indefinite recall. The Obama Administration cited concern for Ford’s personal safety as the basis for this decision. A more likely explanation, however, is the failure of the Administration’s policy of “engagement” with Bashar al-Assad’s repressive autocratic regime. Assad’s …
Facing mounting pressure, the Arab League called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to immediately cease the brutal hostilities against his people. By a near-unanimous vote, the Arab League expressed its hard-line position against Damascus through the threat of economic and political sanctions if the ultimatum is not responded to by …
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi visited Turkey over the weekend and met with Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davuto?lu. On a very broad agenda—which included a formal retraction from Davuto?lu stating that he did, in fact, take seriously U.S. claims that Iran was involved in a plot to kill Saudi …
Bahrain and Syria are countries ruled by sectarian minorities. Bahrain’s Sunni royal family rules over a Shia majority whereas the Assad regime, which rules over a Sunni majority, belongs to the tiny Alawite sect. While this division has exacerbated both of the uprisings, the similarities end here. Bahrain’s royal family …
The Obama Administration, which has been tragically slow to condemn President Bashar al-Assad’s violent repression of peaceful demonstrators and call for his resignation, finally took action to do so yesterday. After muting its criticism of Assad’s serial mass murders of his own people for five months, the White House released …
Turkey finds its “zero problems with neighbors” foreign policy severely compromised by upheaval in the Arab world. Relations with its closest friends, such as Syria, appear to be irrevocably damaged. On Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu held marathon talks in Damascus, calling President Bashar Assad and his socialist-nationalist Alawi …
Monday’s attack on the U.S. Embassy in Damascus—by a mob orchestrated by the Syrian government—underscores the abject failure of the Obama Administration’s strategy of engaging the brutal Bashar al-Assad regime. The Administration naively sought to upgrade diplomatic contacts with the Syrian dictatorship after abandoning the Bush Administration’s policy of mobilizing …
Hundreds of thousands of protesters poured into the streets of Syrian cities on Friday to call for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in one of the largest outpourings of opposition since protests began over three months ago. At least 12 protesters were killed by Assad’s internal security forces. More …
