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Syria Books |
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Islam Books |
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Middle East Books |
Syrian-Saudi Rapprochement Imminent Amid News Hariri Received Damascus’ Blessing by Naharnet Regional players once again swung into action amidst reports that a Saudi envoy will soon visit Syria to discuss, apart from bilateral relations and the Middle East situation, Lebanon in light of the upcoming speakership election and formation of a new government…. As Safir [...]
I begin by apologizing to Howard Schweber, an Associate Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who wrote me a thoughtful note explaining that I had mischaracterized his article “Iran and the Syrian Gambit,” which I excerpted in my last post. Here is Prof. Schweber’s note, which I publish in full. [...]
Western analysts ( See the three articles excerpted below) argue that the troubles in Iran will cause the weakening of the Islamic Republic and lead to Syria’s loss of trust in Iran. They further argue that this will create an opportunity for the US to “flip” Syria, which means getting it to cut support for [...]
Hillary Is Wrong About the Settlements The U.S. and Israel reached a clear understanding about natural growth. By ELLIOTT ABRAMS in WSJ Despite fervent denials by Obama administration officials, there were indeed agreements between Israel and the United States regarding the growth of Israeli settlements on the West Bank. As the Obama administration has made [...]
U.S. sees Syria as key player for Mideast peace By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent 25/06/2009 U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration is examining a proposed Israeli-Syrian peace plan that is based on demilitarizing the Golan Heights and transforming it, along with a strip of the Jordan Valley, into a nature preserve, or “peace park,” that would [...]
President Obama has decided to send an ambassador to Syria. He is doing the right thing. Indeed, relations with Syria should have been normalized long ago as Baker and Hamilton advised. The Bush administration’s policy of conquering Iraq while insisting that it’s neighbors would be next in line for regime-change was unsound and born of [...]
A consensus has been developing among Syria opposition and reform leaders that the EU-Syria Association Agreement that has been on hold since 2004 should be signed. They believe that Syria’s economic opening will lead to greater social liberalism and openness as well. This is the path that the West has pursued with success in China [...]
Nasrallah on Election results (Naharnet) ….Regarding elections, Nasrallah said the opposition’s goal was to obtain a parliamentary majority “in order to carry out reform plans.” “This, however, has not been achieved,” he acknowledged. “I will not conceal that we were looking forward to winning the elections because winning meant confronting major challenges,” he added. “However, [...]
Helena Cobban has an excellent short summary of Syrian-Israeli peace negotiations. Rumyal (Yossi) writes: Helena Cobban has a good post summarizing the history of Syrian-Israeli peace negotiations. She doesn’t mention the indirect negotiations mediated with Abe Suliman and Alon Liel, but otherwise it looks pretty complete. This summary requires a bit of discussion. In case [...]
In reading the following story about Syria and Iraq it is worth noting that Syrian officials here have been saying that Syria can help the US depart Iraq “honorably.” The implication is that the US would be embarrassed by an outbreak of violence in Iraq following US departure, something Syria can help to stop. US [...]
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Director: Center
for Middle East Studies and Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma 405-819-7955 landis@ou.edu |
