Shadowy US Firm Run by Former Diplomat Cinches Syria Oil Deal with Kurds

A Delaware-based company formed by a former American diplomat, a CEO of a private mercenary company and an old hand in the oil business has inked a deal with U.S.-backed Kurdish rebels to develop crude in Syria.

Raul Diego
By Raul Diego
Syria Oil Feature photo

In November of last year, the Pentagon's assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs assured reporters during a press briefing that "the revenue from [Syrian oil fields] is not going to the U.S. [It] is going to the SDF", adding that the purpose of the mission was "to defeat ISIS" and that "securing of the oil fields [was] a

Read Full Article

As Syria Struggles Under COVID-19 Lockdown, America’s Scorched Earth Policy Ensures Food Insecurity

Infuriated by a failed military campaign to remove Syria’s leadership, the US is now turning the economic screws on a nation that has endured a brutal 10-year war of attrition waged by extremist mercenaries.

Vanessa Beeley
By Vanessa Beeley
Virus Outbreak Syria

In a world dominated by American exceptionalism and neo-colonialism, hunger has become a weapon of war. “The use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare is prohibited” under international humanitarian law yet the U.S. regularly reduces entire nations to dangerous levels of food insecurity in order to subjugate them. Food,

Read Full Article

The Caesar Act: The Latest Western Attack on Syria Didn’t Drop From a Plane

As Syria struggles to recover from over a decade of US-imposed conflict, it faces a new deadly threat in the form of sweeping sanctions under the Caesar Act.

Eva Bartlett
By Eva Bartlett
Syria Disabled Feature photo

Talib Mu'alla served as a soldier in the Syrian Arab Army before he was wounded in Aleppo in 2014. As he described the multiple shots he took to his body, I thought it remarkable that he survived. “A shot (bullet) to my chest, a shot to my stomach, three shots in my spine. My chest, stomach, and intestines ruptured, and I lost a kidney. I was

Read Full Article

From Lebanon to Syria, the Arab World is Failing Palestinian Refugees

Refugees, regardless of their race, ethnicity or religion, should be treated with respect and dignity, no matter the political complexity of their host countries.

Ramzy Baroud
By Ramzy Baroud
Palestinian refugees Feature photo

Heinous racism. That is how the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor described a recent decision by Lebanese authorities to bar Palestinian refugee expats from returning to Lebanon. Lebanon’s restrictions on its ever-diminishing population of Palestinian refugees is nothing new. However, this event is particularly alarming as it

Read Full Article

US Accused of Using Food Aid to Smuggle Weapons to Militants in Syria’s Rukban Refugee Camp

UN aid trucks, according to Russian military sources, are being used to deliver not only food and supplies to the suffering civilians but also arms and ammunition to Maghawir Al-Thawra.

Steven Sahiounie
By Steven Sahiounie
A U.S.-backed anti-government fighter mans a heavy automatic machine gun, left, next to an American soldier as they take their positions at Tanf, a border crossing between Syria and Iraq (Hammurabi’s Justice News/AP)

DAMASCUS (Mideast Discourse) -- While the COVID-19 pandemic has taken center stage in the media, little attention is being paid to a tragedy playing out in southeastern Syria. Far away from the western media coverage of the “Islamic State of Idlib”, the scene is set in a desolate area on the border between Syria and Iraq, adjacent to the illegal

Read Full Article

The UK Hasn’t Bombed Iraq or Syria Since Last September. What Gives?

Amid COVID-19, Brexit, and an ongoing economic crisis, the UK appears to be winding down its deadly Middle East bombing campaign. So where to next for the RAF?

Darius Shahtahmasebi
By Darius Shahtahmasebi
UK Bombing Feature photo

The UK’s involvement in the U.S.-led air war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria has slowly and quietly wound down over the last few months. Official figures show that the UK hasn’t dropped a single bomb as part of this campaign since September last year. However, where those bombs have caused significant civilian harm is still uncertain, even after

Read Full Article