Middle East Policy

  1- First of all, the Syria's Brussels eighth conference catching phenomenon for me was the show of some panelists of wealthy Syrian NGOs crying for Syrian children soliciting donors' mony while supporting (at least implicitly) the authority that made them suffer. Some watchers and analysts refer to various kinds of profit-sharing between them.  This reality has enabled me to make a contribution to the political science by recognizing a political phenomenon and suggesting a name and a definition for it. The "Humanitarian-Political Prostitution" is the state of a 'humanitarian' actor with covert or candid political bias that is advocating and fundraising for a humanitarian issue while it supports the very actors and/or factors that brought this issue about.  2- Syrian Religious and churches' subsidiary humanitarian organizations can really go bare of ethics they claim to have in their practices and work in Syria. 3- It is widely believed in Syr

Through my attentive watch of the political and strategic developments in the Middle East, I can profoundly suggest that Israel's foremost problem belongs to the Israeli mentality and its conventional persistent perspective. By which, Palestinians are considered the essential source of threats and dangers that threaten Israel's existence and wellbeing. Then, this belief is directing almost all Israeli strategies and policies, which obviously have been resulting a consecutive series of failures and shortcomings at the domestic and regional levels in strategic and security terms.  For the governing establishment of Israel, coexistence with Palestinians is an existential myth and impossible end despite that Oslo agreement and consequent cooperation with the Palestinian Authority refuted this belief.  Furthermore, the recent developments in the Middle East since the Obama nuclear deal with Iran along with Obama's policies that empowered Iran and its regional 're

In the era of normalization and globalization, let's get it internationally branded: SYRTAGON   You Will Never Get Enough!   For Syrian domestic consumption, there is a local brand: SYRIAGONE   Your Salvation By Default! (Disclaimer: I willingly and freely give up the intellectual property rights.) Well, after a second thought I will give up these rights to Joe Biden and Iran resistance axis. Stay tuned to my X (formerly Twitter), Middle East Policy Blog, and NeoInternationalism website.

In an unprecedented development, the French judiciary has issued an international arrest warrants for the chemical weapons attacks performed by the Syrian government (regime) against civilians during the Syria war. The warrants target three top Syrian officials including the Syrian president.  Here is all you need to know about the first international (non-ICC) arrest warrant of a sitting head of another state for a grave crime against humanity and/or war crime by the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) .  This international precedent is stating that no sovereign impunity for grave crimes against humanity, as clearly indicated by the issuing judiciary, prompts two questions. First, would it be a followed precedent marking a change in the int practice? And the second question, how the following practice will define the initiating grave crimes?  One explanatory enquiry should follow here is about whether the western powers that practically ignored and neg

Netherlands' torture and other ill-treatment case against Syria at the International Court of Justice opens a new chapter in the international order and practice. Although our previous experience with the international order and the international institutions, especially in the Syrian crisis, lets almost no room for any expectations for this case to end torture in Syria or to achieve any difference in the course of action of the Syrian regime, it definitely can lay the foundation for this end by the international documentation, indictment and recognition of these domestic crimes.   In general, this unprecedented ICJ case has a particular international importance as It has a real chance to prompt a beginning of some international system development in terms of the international responsibility and role concerning ill-governance, which is generally fenced by the norm of sovereignty, especially in terms of systematic practice of torture and other kindes of ill-treatment by

It seems that the Israeli governmental establishment applies the 'ostrich' perspective as regards the Israeli Syria policy and the Iranian entrenchment in post-war Syria, which is reluctant to see or recognize. They are still insisting that they managed to defeat the Iranian 'project' (by their own definition of this project) in Syria and hold an assessment which concluds that post-war Syria is not a geopolitical field of the Iranian influence. This conclusion is definitely not shared by the vast majority of the Syrian scholars and activists, who have a quite different assessment of the Iranian power and influence in their country Syria.  These substantially different assessments and conclusions prompt a necessary enquiries to discern this persistent Israeli pretence: - What is the Israeli governmental understanding of the outstanding comprehensive Iranian power and influence in Syria in the military, governmental, economic and social fields? - Does Iran ha

The 'internationalism' keeps being demonstrated as an empirical fact in the international field where the Westphalian 'border' of sovereignty of nation-state is actually porous to international inputs and even determinant kind of international 'interference'. In fact, the international input including all kinds of practices and policies is of vital importance and impact in shaping the outcome of domestic-deemed issues regardless of their international ramifications and dimensions. The sovereignty is not a barrier between the domestic and international realms in reality. 'interference' is a term made to maintain the interests of the most powerful actors, and is actually a natural kind of interaction when it is not protected by adequate power. This is actually a reality rather than a theory or ideology. The ideology is what I invented and became a Keen proponent of it that is 'Neo-Internationalism' where the international natural input

Seven months ago, I wrote about the failure of the Israeli policy in Syria, which poses Israel as a main regional loser in the aftermath of the war in Syria. This article has been followed by other articles describing the following changing balance in the Middle East between Israel and Iran to the benefit of Iran and the role of Israeli policies and its traditional strategy and means toward its regional strategic loss. Meanwhile, the Israeli government and intelligence establishment were in quite different place claiming even achievements in Syria as regards Iran's entrenchment there. The academia and research institutions were in-between. Recently, it came to my attention this article by Ehud Yaari, which is the ever best Israeli analysis I have read in months. Finally, there is some scholar in Israel has the realistic and true assessment of the situation in Syria and the Israeli policy there along with the strategic conclusion. This is definitely a useful work, as th

The new Syrian political/civil platform called Madaniya is a further and even advanced misstep to be added to the continuous series of mistakes by the Syrian opposition, so-called Syrian opposition or agent Syrian opposition. Apart from the entire absence of transparency and democratic mechanisms in governance, which usually leads to corruption and mercenariness, that characterize the vast majority of the Syrian opposition's institutions and entities, Madaniya is making a fatal precedent.  Madaniya is a political entity or an entity with political goals, as stated in its official documents, with a structure and shape of an umbrella for pre-set Syrian civil society organizations. Even though its official literature and rhetoric is causing a lot of confusion about the type and job of this ambiguous institution, the unfortunate and deliberate mix between the civil and political domains can only achieve one end that is to vandalize the both of them, especially the civil do

It seems that the mainstream media follows the course of their governments in their coverage of political and other related developments. As the US Democrat administrations with many other European governments usually incline to practically overlook the Iranian ballistic missile program and its deployment, the mainstream media also is impacted by this inclination. This is indicated by the light and deficient coverage of the recent Iran's unveiling of the fourth generation of its Khorramshahr ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 km (1,243 miles) and a 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) warhead as reported by the official IRNA news agency.  Iran named it Khaybar in reference to famous Islamic anti-jewish battle alongside a replica of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the live broadcast of the state television. As usual, Iran directs its rhetoric against Israel and does not miss any show of its power in this regard . This is an official Iranian tradition and an essential pillar of the ideology o