November 25, 2008

Iraq's international 'Contact group' becoming stronger?

The Security Cooperation and Coordination Committee of Iraq's neighboring countries held its third meeting in Damascus Sunday. This 'Contact Group' brings together representatives of the UN, the US, Iraq's neighbors...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:12 AM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

November 10, 2008

The Syria raid and a whole White House gone rogue

As I argued here October 27, the raid that US Special Forces undertook against Syria Oct. 26 had indeed been authorized by the White House. In fact, by President Bush...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:12 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

October 28, 2008

Iraqi, Iranian dimensions of the Sukkariyeh raid

Well, as was quite predictable Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh has now trotted out new lines condemning Sunday's raid in which US ground forces took off from (presumably) Iraqi territory...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:04 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

October 27, 2008

Syria raid, additional notes

I see that Pat Lang is speculating that the raid might have been some kind of rogue operation on the part of the US Special Forces Command. I certainly respect...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:35 PM | Fulltext link (17 comments)

Attack on Syria: White House misjudgments

Without a doubt, last night's attack by heliborne US forces against a farm compound inside Syria must have been authorized by the President or Vice-President himself. Josh Landis has provided...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:11 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

July 12, 2008

France brokering Lebanon-Syria embassy deal

This is win-win-win all the way. The Lebanese people win by getting their national independence finally recognized by their Syrian neighbor. Syria wins by escaping both from the burden of...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:25 PM | Fulltext link (5 comments)

May 24, 2008

On 'flipping' Syria, prospects for peace

Much of the American MSM commentary on the news about the Syrian-Israeli proximity talks in Turkey has focused on the long-mentioned hope of the west (whatever that is) being able...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:41 PM | Fulltext link (9 comments)

January 16, 2008

Text of interview with Bushra Kanafani

Interview with Ms. Bushra Kanafani, Director of the Foreign Media Department at the Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Conducted for Just World News by Helena Cobban, Jan. 15, 2008....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:52 AM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

Syria's policy, post-Annapolis

The director of the Syrian Foreign Ministry's Foreign Press Department yesterday expressed disappointment with the outcome of the Arab-Israeli peace conference held in Annapolis, Maryland, in late November. Syria...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 08:52 AM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

January 13, 2008

Syria, Annapolis, and after

Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:08 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

November 27, 2007

Golan, the human story

Much of the western media follows the Israeli-initiated habit of thinking and speaking about the issue of Golan only in (very threatening) strategic terms. But Golan is also-- like the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:17 PM | Fulltext link (22 comments)

November 25, 2007

Golan: Getting it straight

Whoa there, AP! The generally well-regarded US newswire is putting out an extremely tendentious little "fact-box" today, on the situation in the Israeli-occupied Golan. Tendentious and, need I add, one-sided....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:44 PM | Fulltext link (13 comments)

April 06, 2007

Pelosi and Damascus, part 2

When we left Nancy Pelosi earlier this week she was still in Damascus. Yesterday, she was in Saudi Arabia. (She said she raised with her Saudi governmental hosts the Kingdom's...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 07:05 AM | Fulltext link (20 comments)

April 02, 2007

Pelosi's spring break in Syria

(This post has been cross-posted to 'The Notion'.) If it's spring break in Washington, then that must be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi-- accompanied by, my goodness, the perpetually pro-Israeli Tom...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:21 PM | Fulltext link (17 comments)

March 13, 2007

West's relations with Syria starting to thaw

US Assistant Secretary of State for Migration Affairs Ellen Sauerbrey was in Damascus yesterday, discussing the situation of the million-plus Iraqi citizens who have found a temporary refuge there. The...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:38 PM | Fulltext link (14 comments)

March 05, 2007

Human rights, democracy, the US, and Syria

(This post has been cross-posted to The Notion.) I spent a few days in Damascus at the end of February, and was able to get a ground-reality view of the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 06:23 AM | Fulltext link (12 comments)

March 03, 2007

Mouallem interview, part 3 (final)

Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:01 AM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

March 02, 2007

Mouallem interview, part 2: Iraq, Lebanon, peace process

Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:16 AM | Fulltext link (5 comments)

March 01, 2007

Syrian Foreign Minister Mouallem on Iraq, etc

Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:26 AM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

February 27, 2007

Returning to Damascus

Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:15 PM | Fulltext link (11 comments)

January 31, 2007

Interview with Amb. Imad Moustapha

Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:35 AM | Fulltext link (16 comments)

January 16, 2007

The Syrian-Israeli back-channel, Part 2

Akiva Eldar does, as I had hoped, have a follow-up piece in Wednesday's HaAretz to the article he had today about the existence and negotiating "achievements" of an unofficial Syrian-Israeli...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:44 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

Akiva Eldar's leak about Syrian-Israeli contacts

There are many interesting aspects of the story that HaAretz's Akiva Eldar published today, telling about some back-channel negotiations pursued-- somewhat indirectly-- between Syria and Israel, from September 2004 through...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:15 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

December 13, 2006

Bush losing control of the agenda?

Sen. Bill Nelson (Dem., of Florida) is the first of four U.S. senators who plan to visit Syria over the congressional break. (The others are Kerry of Massachusetts, Dodd of...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:34 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

September 13, 2006

Patrick Lang: "The Best Defense..."

On 9/11, the Miller Center at the University of Virginia featured a talk by Colonel Patrick Lang - who returned here by reputation as a voice of reason, experience, "independence,"...
Posted by Scott Harrop at 10:28 AM | Fulltext link (13 comments)

November 14, 2005

Resources on the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood

I wanted to put in a link to Anthony Shadid's informative recent interview with Syrian MB head Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni (also here). Shadid wrote: "Syrian society today is destroyed," [Bayanouni]...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:41 PM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

Syrian crackdown, conference canceled

I got a sad email this morning, from a staff assistant at a reform-oriented organization in Damascus called the Tharwa Project. Just ten days ago, Dr. Samer al-Ladkany, the assistant...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:56 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

October 31, 2005

The UN and Syria

So the US has not so far been successful in persuading the UN Security Council to slap sanctions onto Syria in connection with Detlev Mehlis's interim report. That's good...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:08 PM | Fulltext link (7 comments)

October 20, 2005

Mehlis Report accusing Syria

UN-appointed German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis handed his report on the Hariri killing over to Kofi Annan, the Security Council's 15 members, and the government of Lebanon today. AFP was one...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:31 PM | Fulltext link (11 comments)

October 12, 2005

Syria: 'suicide' and uncertainty

Earlier today, Syria's powerful and well-connected Interior Minister, Brig.Gen. Ghazi Kanaan, was found dead in his office, an apparent suicide. Prior to taking up his present job Kanaan had for...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:24 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

May 19, 2005

Bloggers and Kurds in Syria

Joshua Landis's blog from Syria, SyriaComment is always a really informative read. Today he has a great post about the explosion of blogging there, especially this year: I met with...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:11 PM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

March 26, 2005

Bush escalating against Syria

I was going to write a post here noting that the Bushies have taken a serious step toward escalating their battle against Bashar al-Asad's regime in Syria. That link there...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:06 AM | Fulltext link (7 comments)

November 24, 2004

Syria-2

(From Damascus. Written Tuesday evening.) As I started writing this, the plaintive quarter tones of the evening call to prayer were reverberating from the minaret very near to us. Now,...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:32 AM | Fulltext link (37 comments)

November 22, 2004

Syria-1 (and Lebanon)

(Written Sunday) This morning we visited the 1,300-year-old Omayyad Mosque. We saw a 1,000-year-old Islamic madrasa (school) and a stunning 250-year-old palace and nearby khan (a merchant's lodging- and meeting-house)....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:55 AM | Fulltext link (13 comments)

November 21, 2004

A little closer to Fallujah

Ha! I've got a very expensive connection here at our hotel in Damascus. Last night we took a really interesting quick tour of the Old City etc by car, then...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:24 AM | Fulltext link (22 comments)

February 14, 2003

FROM NEW YORK, Valentine's Day

I've had a busy couple of days of work here, talking to some really interesting folks about my 'Violence and its Legacies' project, and starting to make plans for the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:16 AM | Fulltext link (0 comments)