U.S. Policy in the Middle East: A Strategic Forecast with Joel Rayburn and Michael Doran
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The False Promise of a Gas Paradise: The Israel-Lebanon Maritime Deal
The October 13 agreement by Lebanon and Israel to delineate the maritime boundary between the two countries was not an easy task to accomplish. Anybody who followed the process remembers U.S. envoy Frederick Hof’s efforts starting in 2011 and the subsequent “Hof line,” and many other such episodes before U.S. energy envoy Amos Hochstein’s successful …
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U.S. Policy in Syria: Letting Syrians Go to (Putin’s) Hell
As a Syrian, I could not hide my anger and disappointment despite my great sympathy for the Ukrainian people and enthusiasm for the historical stance that President Joe Biden took against Russian aggression in Ukraine. Where were you when those monstrous crimes were committed in Syria? We can accept the pragmatic point that in foreign …
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Seven Myths about the “Historic” Israel-Lebanon Maritime Border Agreement
Commentators in the United States and Israel have hailed the agreement on the maritime border between Israel and Lebanon, which the Biden administration recently brokered, as a great success. They liken it to the Abraham Accords and claim that it is a major step toward normalizing relations between the Jewish State and a historic Arab …
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The Region: A Middle East Newsletter
THE REGION is a weekly news digest of significant developments in the Middle East that will be of interest for the American and Middle Eastern audiences. THE REGION is a news selection curated by the experts of ACLS and drawn from English, Arabic, and other regional language sources. For questions about THE REGION or suggestions for topics to cover, contact the editor of THE REGION at rkisar@acls.shinesyr.org.
The Vacuum in U.S. Syria Policy, And How to Fill It
More than a year and a half into their tenure, the Biden administration studiously avoids having a Syria policy.
The Impending Collapse of Syrian Society–And Why the United States Can No Longer Ignore It
Syria has disappeared from the world’s newspaper headlines, but the situation inside the country grows more volatile by the day. In every quarter of Syria, daily life is becoming unsustainable.
Syria: A Dictatorial Regime And Its Continuing Crimes
The Syrian regime is guilty of terrible war crimes – the killing of civilians, destruction of property, and the use of chemical weapons against defenseless civilian populations. The regime has also committed crimes against humanity which, in my view, include: the systematic killing, arrest, forced disappearance of countless individuals, as well as the torture, and …
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Narcotics: Assad’s New Weapons of Mass Destruction
When Syrian Dictator Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against Syrian communities, he found himself the object of the indignation of the free world. But when he uses his Captagon weapon against them, his attacks are invisible to the outside world, making Assad’s drug victimization of Syrians the perfect crime without trace or noise. The Syrian …
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With Eyes on Ukraine, Syrians Mark Seven Years of Russian War Crimes
September 30, 2022 marked the seven-year anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s military intervention in Syria to prop up Bashar al-Assad’s sinking regime. Since September 2015, Syrian cities, towns, and villages have suffered the same war crimes the world now sees the Russians committing against Ukraine. Syrians believe a principal reason the Russians feel free to terrorize …
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