This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Close to 1.4 million people will need resettlement in countries free from war and persecution in 2019, the UN refugee agency, said on Monday, citing growing forced displacement across the globe. Resettlement – the transfer of refugees from the country where they have claimed […]Resettlement needs set to rise to 1.4 million people in 2019, UN refugee agency reports
June 26, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Close to 1.4 million people will need resettlement in countries free from war and persecution in 2019, the UN refugee agency, said on Monday, citing growing forced displacement across the globe. Resettlement – the transfer of refugees from the country where they have claimed […]UN chief calls for ‘immediate end’ to escalation of fighting in southwestern Syria, as thousands are displaced
June 25, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. The UN Secretary-General on Friday expressed his grave concern for thousands of civilians caught up in an escalation of fighting across southwestern Syria, close to the border with Jordan. In a statement released by his Spokesman, António Guterres, said that an uptick in conflict […]Nearly three million more displaced year-on-year, warns refugee agency chief, but solutions are within reach
June 19, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. The number of people forced to flee their homes last year rose by nearly three million to 68.5 million, the head of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday, warning that the world’s displacement hotspots “are becoming hotter”. Citing ongoing, protracted violence around the […]‘Highly explosive’ escalation of conflict and displacement across Syria’s Idlib, says top UN official
June 12, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. The situation inside Syria’s Idlib threatens to become “highly explosive” amid an uptick in conflict between armed groups and a spike in the number of people displaced inside the war-torn country, a top UN aid official said on Monday. Panos Moumtzis, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator […]Macron in St. Petersburg didn’t oppose Trump on Iran, in Putin’s presence
May 28, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Emmanuel Macron, the French President, who has regained the European political initiative for his country, traveled to St. Petersburg, in Russia last Thursday. This was not an official state visit though. Macron just decided to participate in St. Petersburg’s annual International Economic Forum (SPIEF). A high end business delegation accompanied him. Macron met Putin only […]Syria: Civilians bear brunt of unilateral sanctions, exacerbating ‘unparalleled suffering, destruction,’ says UN expert
May 18, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Syrian civilians are frequently being denied live-saving humanitarian support – an unintended consequence of unilateral sanctions, that are exacerbating an already dire situation, according to a United Nations rights expert. “I am deeply concerned in the way that sanctions are being implemented,” Idriss Jazairy, […]Syria: UN-backed watchdog says chemical weapon ‘likely used’ in February attack
May 17, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Deadly chlorine gas was likely used in an attack that took place in a Syrian town in rebel-held Idlib last February, said the United Nations-backed chemical weapons watchdog on Wednesday. The report, released Tuesday by the fact-finding mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of […]Macron crowned king of Europe in Washington D.C.; just a working meeting with Trump for Merkel
April 26, 2018 by Leave a Comment
A rare service Donald Trump is currently doing for the Europeans is that he offers them a platform for important common action to be undertaken by the French President Emmanuel Macron and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They are both visiting the White House this week, but expect quite different reception from Trump; pompous state […]The West cannot ignore Russia; dazed Germany sitting on the fence
April 19, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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
April 16, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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
April 12, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Putin becomes the ‘perfect enemy” for the West
March 22, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Putin, after having won last Sunday’s presidential election in Russia with a landslide of 76.7% is now turning to the West for détente. According to Reuters, he said “had no desire for an arms race and would do everything he could to resolve differences with other countries”. Only a few days ahead of election Sunday […]Russia – US in Syria: Selling Afrin to Turkey but facing off ruthlessly for Ghouta
March 15, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Trump reshapes the Middle East at the expenses of Europe
January 25, 2018 by 3 Comments
Trump’s completely unwarranted aggressiveness towards the rest of the world took a violent thrust this week. His vice President Mike Pence speaking at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, announced a speed-up of the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. The move is now to be completed before the end of next […]Erdogan’s Turkey in dire straits for flip flop policies in the Middle East
January 8, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Last week a US federal court convicted Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive of Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank. This is a major financial institution of this country, controlled directly by the government. Attila found guilty on five accounts, for evading the American sanctions imposed on Iran. Most of those punitive measures were lifted in April 2015, in […]Destabilizing Lebanon after burning Syria; plotting putsch at home: King and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia
November 13, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last week the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman, son of King Salman placed the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Saad Al-Hariri under house arrest in Riyadh and forced him to resign his premiership. The Sunni Lebanese premier has a double citizenship, Lebanese and Saudi Arabian. His family has extended business interests and wealth […]The challenges of mental health among the Syrian medical students
October 27, 2017 by Leave a Comment
This article was exclusively written for the Sting by Alexey Yousef. He is a 6th year M.D student in Tishreen University, Lattakia, Syria. IFMSA wise, he is the president and founder of the Syrian Medical Students Association SMSA-Tishreen local committee that officially represents his university in the IFMSA. If relationship status, academic performance, smoking and […]19th EU-China Summit: A historical advance in the Chino-European rapprochement
June 8, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Mainstream media and the two EU Presidents (Donald Tusk of the Council and Jean-Claude Juncker of the Commission), during and after last week’s groundbreaking 19th EU-China Summit (1-2 June), focused on the joint and unreserved pledge of Europe and China to wholeheartedly uphold the Paris Climate Agreement. This was a direct reply to Donald Trump’s […]Dangerous Trumpism in the Middle East with an anti-European edge
May 25, 2017 by Leave a Comment
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 […]A voice from Syria: the positive prospect of clinical research despite the excruciating circumstances
April 17, 2017 by Leave a Comment
This article was exclusively written for the Sting by Mr Alexey Youssef, a 6th year M.D student in Tishreen University, Lattakia, Syria. He is also affiliated to the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA). However, the opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one. It is […]Trump’s Syrian hit the softest option vis-a-vis Russia
April 10, 2017 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Trump’s Russophiles under investigation, Europe remains ‘en garde’
March 6, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the ongoing FBI probe of the case of the Russian interference in the US Presidential elections favoring Donald Trump. He said “I have recused myself in the matters that deal with the Trump campaign.” Last September, the US intelligence agencies collective, in a joint paper, […]Trump stumbles badly on his Russian openings; Europeans wary of Putin
February 16, 2017 by Leave a Comment
In the fourth week of the Trump Presidency things have become more hectic. Those around the boss are now people of authority, and their actions directly affect America and the world. It’s not only that the chief himself changes his mind from one day to the next about crucial global issues, like the ‘one China’ […]Syria: A bloody tracer of Trump – Putin rapprochement
January 26, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Despite the dreadful fact that the fighting and the bloodshed continues on many spots on the ground, the Astana agreement for a truce in Syria backed by Russia, Turkey and Iran seems to present a good chance for peace. Last Tuesday, the above three foreign powers and their proxies implicated in the Syrian civil war, […]Turkey caught in a vicious Syrian circle bringing terror and war at home
January 9, 2017 by 1 Comment
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
December 22, 2016 by 1 Comment
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
December 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Turkey’s Erdogan provokes the US and the EU by serving jihadists and trading on refugees
December 1, 2016 by 3 Comments
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, after having declared war against the political, judiciary and civic structures of his own country, employs the same belligerent tactics in the domain of foreign policy. He now threatens to send to Europe 3 million refugees and immigrants who are stationed in Turkey. True, more than three million people, […]Europe moulds global defense and security chart given US new inward vision
November 24, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Europe takes very seriously Trump’s rhetoric about limiting US commitment to NATO and Old Continent’s defenses. In view of that, Federica Mogherini, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, speaking at a conference entitled “The Future of EU-NATO Cooperation“, found a great opportunity to address the dawning US […]ISIS fighters fleeing Mosul for Syria can topple Assad. Why did the US now decide to uproot them from Iraq?
October 27, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The failure of the US, EU, Turkey and Saudi Arabia joint strategy in the Middle East seems to lead to a complete destruction of any political, economic and state infrastructure in the region, after having failed to fulfill its targets. Just think that the main target of the foreign involvement in Syria was to topple […]Solitary Britain sides with US aggressing Russia and chooses hard Brexit
October 20, 2016 by Leave a Comment
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?
September 26, 2016 by Leave a Comment
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
September 15, 2016 by Leave a Comment
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 […]
