Syria

As Explosive Weapons Kill More Civilians Abroad, US Companies Just Sell More of Them

July 15, 2020

For the ninth year in a row, 90 percent of people killed by explosive weapons in urban areas were civilians. The use of these devices is proliferating in conflicts because they are becoming easier to come by — sometimes they are even homemade. The United States is the world’s largest overall exporter of arms …

Disarmament, Middle East, Security Council, Syria

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SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

From Five to Four: Belgium Strives to Fill the European Gap in the Security Council Left by Brexit

February 6, 2020

by Stéphanie Fillion

In Brussels, the month started with the removal of Britain’s flag from the European Union headquarters, while in New York, Belgium became rotating president of the United Nations Security Council for February, ready to fill the political vacuum left by Britain’s departure from the European bloc on the Council, thanks to Brexit. PassBlue met …

Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Security Council Presidency, Syria

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GEOPOLITICS

The Moment to End Turkey’s Other War, in Cyprus, Is Fading Fast

October 24, 2019

by Stéphanie Fillion

Anywhere from the capital of Nicosia, day and night, Greek Cypriots can see a giant flag painted into the mountains in the north, in a separate region that calls itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It is an area that is recognized only by Turkey and isolated internationally. From the Greek side of …

Geopolitics, Secretary-General, Syria

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Hillary Clinton on Trump’s Foreign Policy: It’s All About Waiting for His Next Tweet

October 16, 2019

by Dulcie Leimbach

Hillary Clinton glided onto a stage in Manhattan with the luxury of now being a cool-eyed outsider who can sharply question foreign policy decisions being made by the Trump administration on such controversial places as China, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. Clinton was the keynote speaker at the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s daylong …

Asia, Human Rights, Syria, US Foreign Relations

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The only talk show of its kind in the world

A New OPCW Team Is Ready to Find the Culprits Behind Chemical Attacks in Syria

May 6, 2019

by Johannes Visser

THE HAGUE — The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is inching closer in trying to determine who instigated the various chemical attacks in Syria last year. In April 2018, gas cylinders filled with chlorine were dropped from a helicopter in the residential areas of Douma, outside the capital of Damascus. At least …

Asia, Disarmament, Security Council, Syria

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TOPIC: WOMEN

‘We Do Not Ask. We Act’: A Syrian Women Activist Tells It Like It Is

November 20, 2018

by Maria Luisa Gambale and Laura E. Kirkpatrick

Mariam Jalabi, a co-founder of the Syrian Women’s Political Movement and the Syrian National Council’s representative to the United Nations, reflected on Syria’s future in a recent conversation with Jamille Bigio, senior fellow in the Council on Foreign Relations’ Women and Foreign Policy program. Jalabi’s work focuses on women’s inclusion in politics and decision-making, and …

Syria, Women

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BOOKS

An Eloquent Homage to Syria’s Past, in Case It Has No Future

June 16, 2018

by Irwin Arieff

As one of the world’s oldest areas of human settlement, Syria has seen it all: glory and irrelevance, conflict and calm, dynamism and stagnation, tyranny and tolerance. While it has gone through long periods of international obscurity — pretty much ignored by the Roman and Ottoman Empires, for example — it has at times …

BOOKS, Syria

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WORLDVIEWS

Why Syria Will Need a UN Peacekeeping Force (Called Unshams)

May 3, 2018

by Andrew McIndoe

After seven years of horrific fighting, it appears that the Syrian civil war is inching toward a conclusion. In the wake of recent alleged chemical attacks unleashed in Eastern Ghouta, Bashar al-Assad’s regime is squeezing remaining rebel forces, largely herding them — and thousands of civilians — into the northwest in Idlib Province, where …

Peace and Security, Syria, UN Peacekeeping, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

Why Turkey’s Model Work Permits for Refugees Don’t Actually Work

February 5, 2018

by Tino Calabia

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A major problem with Turkey for the millions of refugees there, it has a model work permit system for the newcomers, but it still bars them from the country’s labor market. Such problems can be overcome, experts contend, so that the refugees can work for decent wages in Turkey. Izza Leghtas, …

Human Rights, Poverty, Refugees, Syria, WORLDVIEWS

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BOOKS

A Hint on Confronting Islamist Power. Or Maybe Not.

October 7, 2017

by Irwin Arieff

Will it never end? When will time run out on the array of shape-shifting militant Islamist movements intent on moving into shaky trouble spots around the world to impose their extreme ideology, harness the population and hijack the local economy? How long will it take for the international community — the ubiquitous West — …

BOOKS, Libya, Middle East, Syria, Terrorism, US Foreign Relations

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TOPIC: WOMEN

Syrian Refugees Get Help to Run Their Own Business, but It’s Not Easy

September 4, 2017

by Elizabeth Walsh

TAANAYEL, Lebanon — Taanayel is nestled in Lebanon’s picturesque Bekaa Valley, and on a hot summer day in a feebly air-conditioned room, 35 Syrian female refugees gathered at a center shared by numerous local nongovernmental organizations. They arrived that morning by bus from Salaam wa Makhaba, a refugee camp nearby. The women are here to …

Refugees, Syria, Women

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NIKKI HALEY WATCH

‘I Don’t Go Rogue on the President’: Nikki Haley’s Contradictory Testimony to Congress About the UN

June 28, 2017

by Barbara Crossette

Five months into her stint as United States ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley faced two days of often-sharp questioning on June 27 and 28 by influential panels of the United States Congress. They demanded justification for the Trump administration’s decision to slash funding to the United Nations, particularly cuts to the UN …

Nikki Haley Watch, Security Council, Syria, UN Agencies, UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

Was America’s Attack on Syria Legal? An Asian Expert’s View

April 26, 2017

by Yasuhiro Ueki

The images of civilians, particularly children, being asphyxiated by chemical substances and dying in Idlib Province of Syria on April 4 were a game changer. Judging that the chemical attack was carried out by the Syrian government, the United States, two days later, attacked Syria’s Shayrat airbase with 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles. The US …

Disarmament, Middle East, Security Council, Syria, US Foreign Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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GEOPOLITICS

Can António Guterres Fend Off Trump’s War on the UN?

April 10, 2017

by Dulcie Leimbach

When António Guterres was chosen by the United Nations Security Council in October to become the next leader of the UN, neither he nor anyone else could have predicted precisely who would be commanding the Oval Office of the White House in January 2017, just as Guterres’s term opened. Now that Donald Trump has …

Geopolitics, Secretary-General, Security Council, Syria, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

Russia and US Clash on Syria in the UN Security Council, Once Again

April 7, 2017

by Barbara Crossette

Russia called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Friday, a day after the United States launched a missile attack in Syria. But Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Vladimir Safronkov, faced a tough response from the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, who castigated the Russians for supporting …

Geopolitics, Security Council, Syria

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Syria

As Explosive Weapons Kill More Civilians Abroad, US Companies Just Sell More of Them

From Five to Four: Belgium Strives to Fill the European Gap in the Security Council Left by Brexit

The Moment to End Turkey’s Other War, in Cyprus, Is Fading Fast

Hillary Clinton on Trump’s Foreign Policy: It’s All About Waiting for His Next Tweet

A New OPCW Team Is Ready to Find the Culprits Behind Chemical Attacks in Syria

‘We Do Not Ask. We Act’: A Syrian Women Activist Tells It Like It Is

An Eloquent Homage to Syria’s Past, in Case It Has No Future

Why Syria Will Need a UN Peacekeeping Force (Called Unshams)

Why Turkey’s Model Work Permits for Refugees Don’t Actually Work

A Hint on Confronting Islamist Power. Or Maybe Not.

Syrian Refugees Get Help to Run Their Own Business, but It’s Not Easy

‘I Don’t Go Rogue on the President’: Nikki Haley’s Contradictory Testimony to Congress About the UN

Was America’s Attack on Syria Legal? An Asian Expert’s View

Can António Guterres Fend Off Trump’s War on the UN?

Russia and US Clash on Syria in the UN Security Council, Once Again

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