Recent rumblings portend a grim new episode for Syria’s Idlib province. Stretching along the northwestern border with Turkey, Idlib became the last redoubt of forces that oppose President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, namely Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the National Liberation Front, when...
The politics of Idlib are extremely complicated, particularly with respect to outside powers that have vested interests in the outcome of the fight for the province. The delicate balance of power in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib appears unsustainable and, to say the least, it is...
In this edition of The Interview, Fair Observer talks to the former US ambassador in Syria, Robert Ford. Robert Ford served as the US ambassador to Syria between 2011 and 2014, an appointee of the Obama administration. Ford was criticized for his belief that working with the Syrian rebels would...
If the borders with Syria are reopened, Jordan can become a hub for the reconstruction process. Jordan is employing a new political and security tactic regarding the Syrian conflict. On August 30, Amman, the host of the Military Operations Center (MOC) that oversees the truce in Syria, held a...
To some, the significance of the Trump-Putin meeting is a harbinger of things to come. The July 7 meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Hamburg, on the sidelines of the G20 summit, will be remembered not so much because the meeting of two most important world leaders finally...
Climate change is creating preconditions in Egypt that precipitated the Syrian Civil War. The Nile Delta, home to 40 million people and source of two-thirds of Egypt’s food production, is disappearing. This is a direct result of climate change and rising sea levels. The Delta, about the size...
The greenhorn president is heading down a well-worn path: see a problem, fire a missile at it. It didn’t take long for Donald Trump to discover that US foreign policy is about as easy to turn around as a warship in dry dock. Despite any number of promises to shake things up — during the...
Strikes on Syria after a ghastly chemical weapons attack boost Trump’s popularity but raise questions of whether they are punitive, preventive or just. In an age where there are five jobs in public relations in the US for every single job in journalism, there are far too many issues for...
By increasing its investment in the Southern Front, the Trump administration can secure some of the most important areas of Syria. The Syrian opposition movement has come to an inflection point from which it will be irreversibly changed—with significant consequences for the stability of the...
As Aleppo falls, the world has forgotten about civilians in Syria. I woke up this morning to a video of an old Syrian man gesturing wildly at a camera as bombs tore up the concrete behind him. He looked like many Arab grandfathers I know, bearded and wearing a plaid shirt decorated with...
