Oct 18 2018
With Turkey preoccupied and the Nusra Front split, a military solution is looking likelier By Abdel Bari Atwan Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s ‘disappearance’ has indirectly affected the Idlib agreement between Russia and Turkey. Monday was the date for the more important part of that agreement — requiring the withdrawal of the Tahrir ash-Sham Organization (former Nusra Front) from the […]
By mahaburbar1 • Syria •
Oct 14 2018
We may see a ‘Megrahi Scenario’ being applied to cover up the Khashoggi Affair By Abdel Bari Atwan In his recent comments, US President Donald Trump gave us an indication of how the case of the Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, who went into his country’s consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday and never reappeared, may be […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Oct 10 2018
If Turkey doesn’t reveal the truth, there should be an international inquiry into the Saudi journalist’s disappearance By Abdel Bari Atwan It is painful to see the case of the disappearance of the well-known Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi becoming more mysterious by the day. With all the conflicting information, and the absence of conclusive evidence, […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Oct 8 2018
The disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi is a message to all the Saudi crown prince’s critics, wherever they may be By Abdel Bari Atwan The Turkish security authorities have yet to live up to their promise to reveal full details, with supporting video evidence, of the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi since he went into […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Oct 2 2018
Why did the Saudi crown prince’s visit go so badly wrong? By Abdel Bari Atwan The biggest question being asked in most diwaniyas and gatherings in Kuwait and the Gulf region is about Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin-Salman’s visit to Kuwait. Why did he postpone it for a day, from Saturday until Sunday? And why did he […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Oct 1 2018
Why the Saudis are trying to rebuild bridges with Damascus By Abdel Bari Atwan It was a truly rare and unprecedented sight to see Syrian Foreign Minster Walid al-Muallem embrace his Bahraini counterpart Sheikh Khaled Bin-Ahmad Al Khalifa on the side-lines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Not just because of the warmth […]
By mahaburbar1 • Syria •
Sep 27 2018
The Palestinian people’s principal problem is their own leadership By Abdel Bari Atwan Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ address to the UN General Assembly was disappointing. It repeated the same phrases used in his last eight speeches. Nothing new at all. The same appeals for international sympathy. Even the wording of his complaints about Israel’s failure […]
By mahaburbar1 • Palestine •
Sep 27 2018
The US president’s UN speech will help unite most of the world against him By Abdel Bari Atwan The laughter that broke out when US President Donald Trump addressed the UN General Assembly — after his opening remarks in which he spoke about his economic achievements and his commitment to humanity and world-wide prosperity and […]
Sep 25 2018
Israeli warplanes could finally lose their freedom to attack Syria with impunity By Abdel Bari Atwan Many readers were sceptical when we predicted in this newspaper that Syria would emerge as the biggest gainer from last week’s downing of a Russian air force reconnaissance plane and the killing of its 15 crew members. We argued […]
By mahaburbar1 • Israel, Russia, Syria •
Sep 23 2018
More attacks can be expected as US/Saudi destabilisation plans unfold By Abdel Bari Atwan When US President Donald Trump accuses Iran of being behind most if not all terrorist attacks in the world; Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin-Salman openly vows to take his battle with Iran into Iranian territory; and Israel threatens to continue attacking […]
By mahaburbar1 • Iran, Saudi Arabia •
Sep 20 2018
Israel’s set-up in the skies over Latakia could prove to be a big mistake By Abdel Bari Atwan Following the accidental downing of a Russian military reconnaissance plane off Latakia and the killing of the 15 crew members who were on board, and the signing of the Idlib peace accord entailing the creation of a […]
By mahaburbar1 • Iran, Israel, Syria •
Sep 19 2018
An assault on Idlib has been averted, but many questions remain unanswered By Abdel Bari Atwan The most visible outcome of the Sochi summit at which the presidents of Russia, Turkey and Iran conferred for four and half hours was the announcement by Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu that there will be no military operation […]
By mahaburbar1 • Iran, Russia, Syria, Turkey •
Sep 14 2018
The US has only itself to blame for Iran’s growing influence in the country By Abdel Bari Atwan The war between the US and Iran has begun moving markedly onto the Iraqi stage, with the US government increasingly treating the Iranian regime as though it were Iraq’s de facto ruler. This was underlined by the […]
By mahaburbar1 • Iran, Iraq, Jihad •
Sep 5 2018
Why the revived talk of a proposed Palestinian-Jordanian confederation? By Abdel Bari Atwan Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is skilled at launching ‘trial balloons’. He uses them to take the pulse of the Palestinian public or to pave the way for some political project he is discussing with the Israeli occupation state or some neighbouring countries […]
By mahaburbar1 • Palestine •
Sep 5 2018
The coming few days will be decisive for Syria, and could determine the future of the entire Middle East By Abdel Bari Atwan Whether peacefully or by war, the tragic situation in Syria is approaching an end-station in Idlib. The Syrian army is poised to launch an offensive to recapture the city with the support […]
By mahaburbar1 • Syria •
Aug 28 2018
Syria could face a renewed US-led assault after refusing to break with Iran By Abdel Bari Atwan There have been successive attempts by the US and Saudi Arabia recently to secretly offer the Syrian leadership a ‘tempting’ deal under which, essentially, it would break with the ‘resistance axis’ (specifically Iran and Hezbollah) in exchange for […]
By mahaburbar1 • Syria, United States of America •
Aug 25 2018
Does the reappearance of the IS leader signal the start of Stage 2? By Abdel Bari Atwan It may be pure coincidence that both the leader of the Islamic State (IS) group Abu-Bakral-Baghdadi and the head of Hay’at Tahrir ash-Sham (formerly the Nusra Front), Abu-Muhammad al-Joulani, resurfaced at the same time last week. The former […]
By mahaburbar1 • ISlamic State •
Aug 23 2018
Will a new ‘chemical weapons’ pretext be used to stop the Syrian army from retaking Idlib? By Abdel Bari Atwan US National Security Advisor John Bolton is one of the most influential and hawkish members of the Trump Administration, and is anti-Arab and Islamophobic in the extreme. His just-concluded three-day visit to Israel was tantamount […]
By mahaburbar1 • Iran, Israel, Syria, United States of America •
Aug 21 2018
Why is the US getting Saudi Arabia and the UAE to pay for its deployment in Syria? By Abdel Bari Atwan Donald Trump treats most of his Arab allies in the Gulf region as cash-dispensing machines. His shamelessness in this regard reached new heights at the weekend when he tweeted that he had decided to stop providing […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia, The Gulf, United States of America •
Oct 19 2018
Seeking the Head of Muhammad Bin-Salman
Attempts to bury the Khashoggi case by blaming rogue operatives are unlikely to succeed By Abdel Bari Atwan There are three main parties currently standing in the way of US President Donald Trump’s plans to whitewash the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside his country’s consulate in Istanbul, and to absolve Saudi Arabia’s de facto […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •