2019: An unpredictable, confrontational and financially ominous year

The global outlook for 2019 was already looking unpredictable and dangerously confrontational, but the firing of US Defense Secretary, the moderate retired general Jim Mattis makes it exponentially more so. During the past few months ‘America first’ President Donald Trump has dismissed all the top three reasonable American policy makers. First it was the State Department […]

The Europeans back Russia-Turkey on Syria: A ‘Waterloo’ for Saudis and their Crown Prince

France and Germany have put their weight behind the Russia–Turkey agreement for a lasting ceasefire in Syria. The four leaders also said they agreed to put together a committee to draft a constitution for the political rehabilitation of the devastated country. Last Saturday, the French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Russian […]

The West cannot ignore Russia; dazed Germany sitting on the fence

After the missile attacks by the Western trio of US, Britain and France against Damascus and other positions in war torn Syria, the Russian overlords and Assad regime in that part of the world, continues pursuing their agenda, as if nothing happened. From a certain angle truly nothing has changed regarding the military and political […]

The missiles fired against Damascus, Syria divided Europe deeply

Last Friday night till the early hours of Saturday morning the US-France-Britain alliance attacked the Assad/Putin regime of Damascus, with a precipitation of missiles. Seemingly though, the hits have had a greater political impact on Europe than in Syria itself. Germany and Italy, the other two major European Union countries with strong interests in the […]

A new catastrophic phase in the Syrian carnage

At a time when Donald Trump, the US President of ‘America first’ had just urged his military to leave Syria, the gas attack in Douma, near Damascus seems to change the prospect for Washington abandoning this country to Assad, Putin, Erdogan and the Iranians. Last Saturday, more than 60 people died and about 1000 were […]

Russia – US in Syria: Selling Afrin to Turkey but facing off ruthlessly for Ghouta

How many more dead and wounded human beings are needed to convince Russia and the US that they must come to terms about the future of Syria? At a time when the mainstream western media are extensively and exclusively reporting the woes of the desperate inhabitants of Ghouta, at another Syrian front in Afrin, the […]

Dangerous Trumpism in the Middle East with an anti-European edge

All main stream media analysts agree that the US President Donald Trump last Sunday 21 May in Riyadh, completely reversed his predecessor Barack Obama’s Middle East policy. He made it evidently biased, aggressive and dangerously personal, despite the extensive use of the word ‘peace’. In a matter of hours Trump endorsed one hundred per cent […]

Trump’s Syrian hit the softest option vis-a-vis Russia

All the major English language media interpreted last week’s US strike of the Syrian air base with Tomahawk missiles, as a serious geostrategic action by Donald Trump carrying messages not only to Russia, but also to North Korea and even China. Nothing is less true than that. This was the least the new US President […]

Turkey caught in a vicious Syrian circle bringing terror and war at home

The Turkish government, under the iron hand of the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, felt obliged to further challenge the Americans in the troubled region of the Middle East this past week. Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak and Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin questioned the presence of the US led coalition forces at the key air […]

Fear casts again a cold, ugly shadow over Europe; Turkey sides with Russia

The deadly attack in a Berlin Christmas market and the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Ankara, may not be closely connected or plotted by related terrorist circles, but they aim at the same target; to terrify entire populations and block what could lead to a solution in the Syrian mess. Add to that the […]

A shortened EU Summit admits failures, makes risky promises

Last Thursday, 15 December, the cut down to one day European Summit, confirmed that Europe continues on the wrong path. The 27 + 1 leaders acknowledged the complete failure of key policies regarding Syria and Turkey and kept making promises to Ukraine and Georgia they cannot honor. Unfortunately, Brussels refuses to learn the lessons still […]

Solitary Britain sides with US aggressing Russia and chooses hard Brexit

Last Sunday Britain surprised Europe by surpassing even the Americans in condemning and threatening Russia over the fight of Aleppo, imminent to be lost for the West. British Foreign minister Boris Johnson went past the US Secretary of State John Kerry, in pointing a finger at Russia. While Kerry threatened Moscow with more economic sanctions, […]

Syria: Why did the US-Russia brokered ceasefire collapse? What does the duo care for?

Only two weeks after it was agreed upon, the ceasefire in Syria has finally broken down. However, the US and Russia are still trying to find common grounds, not for a new truce, but for an arrangement about splitting Syria’s carcass. This is a clear indication that the war will continue until the two powers […]

The impossible end of the war in Syria

The United States and the Russian governments without the slightest remorse announced that it was with their guns the Syrians have been killing each other for the last six years. This is the translation in plain English of last weekend’s news, which is that Washington and Moscow agreed on a truce in Syria, after very […]

Syria: Why did the US now take the Russian offer for a truce? What next?

The US-Russia plan for a “cessation of hostilities” in Syria, endorsed by the UN Security Council on Friday 26 February kicked off in the early hours of Saturday and two days after is still more or less observed. Understandably the cease-fire may collapse at any moment but the US and Russia seem determined to keep […]

The Syrian knot cannot be cut without devastating consequences

Brussels seems quite lost with what is happening now in Syria. The statement issued last Monday 15 February by the European High Representative Mogherini and Commissioner Stylianides on the atrocious and murderous attacks on hospitals and schools in Syria stands as an infallible witness to that. At this point in time, the foreign powers, regional or […]

Can the Americans alone determine the future of Syria?

The last speech of Bashar al Assad on the first Friday of New Year, which deeply disappointed the West and the Sunni Arabs in the oil rich countries of the Persian Gulf, was about an all-out war. He spoke of “a full scale war” against the enemies of his regime, mainly the Sunni Muslims. But […]

Is Erdogan losing game and match within and without Turkey?

The Turkish candidacy for full EU membership, get caught in the Cypriot problem or at least this is what the average technocrat in every European Foreign ministry will tell you. But people, who are implicated in the whole affair, are insisting that this is what Ankara wants everybody else to believe. In reality however it […]

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