The Week: Most Recent Middle East:Syria's Uprising

Did politics prevent President Obama from arming Syria's rebels?

The Week — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 12:05:00 -0500

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday said he had supported a plan to arm rebels in Syria seeking to overthrow longtime leader Bashar al-Assad. In addition, he said General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had also backed the plan, but that it was eventually vetoed by the White House.

With Panetta's testimony, it's now clear that nearly the entire national security apparatus had supported the proposal, which would have seen the U.S. arm rebels who had been vetted to ensure that American weapons...

Israel's strike on the Syria-Lebanon border: 3 repercussions

The Week — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:10:00 -0500

Israeli warplanes have reportedly blasted a convoy of trucks driving across the border from Syria to Lebanon, according to several news outlets. Syria denies a convoy was attacked, and claims Israel bombed a military research center in Damascus province. Just Sunday, Israel had threatened to launch a pre-emptive strike, if necessary, to prevent Syria's chemical weapons from falling into the hands of Lebanon's Hezbollah or other Islamist groups, including al Qaeda affiliates. Israel has long worried that Syrian President Bashar Assad, locked in a 22-month civil war, could lose control of his stockpile...

Syria's deepening humanitarian crisis: By the numbers

The Week — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 07:18:00 -0500

Nobody, it seems, was impressed with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's speech on Sunday laying out his plan to end the bloody 22-month conflict pitting Assad's government against armed rebels trying to topple him. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon dismissed Assad's proposal as a thinly veiled effort to stay in power, and the U.S. State Department said the speech shows that Assad is "detached from reality." But the unpalatable reality, says Simon Tisdall at Britain's The Guardian, is that "Assad is still in power, shows no sign of heeding demands to quit, and is far from beaten," and...

How American inaction is killing Syrians

The Week — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 08:40:00 -0500

The international community is responsible for a myriad of failures in Syria, with 2012 marking a banner year of incompetence. Bad policy, no follow through, and the feckless leadership of President Obama have contributed greatly to the Syrian crisis, and there is little hope of course correction in 2013.

In January 2012, there was hope — no evidence, but hope — that Bashar al-Assad, the tyrannical president of Syria, might book a one-way flight to Dubai. The White House even began laying the groundwork for a victory lap by President Obama. Jay Carney, the president's spokesman, dismissively...

Is Bashar al-Assad nearly finished?

The Week — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:00:00 -0500

Syria's United Nations ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, told U.N. leaders in letters circulated Monday that opposition fighters might use chemical weapons against civilians, and try to blame the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. American officials, on the other hand, have said that intelligence sources suggest that Assad's military is getting so desperate that it's preparing deadly sarin gas for possible use against rebels — just one of a growing number of indications that Assad's grip on power is slipping. President Obama, who last week recognized a new opposition coalition as the legitimate...

Syria's PR campaign failed -- and so did America's policy

The Week — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:50:00 -0500

This week will likely have proven to be the end of Bashar al-Assad, the tyrannical president of Syria. After a relentless military campaign against his own people, he has turned at last to directing Scud missiles at them, a crime against humanity to crown his previous feat of facilitating the deaths of some 50,000 Syrians. Even Russia, Syria's arms dealer, seemed to recognize the terminal status of the Syrian government on Thursday, though Moscow quickly backtracked on those statements.

Incredibly, as late as last year the Obama administration was still hailing ...

Has Bashar al-Assad lost control of Syria?

The Week — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:08:00 -0500

With rebels making gains across Syria, Russian leaders are saying for the first time that their ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is losing control and might lose his fight to retain power. The country's civil war has dragged on for nearly two years, costing an estimated 40,000 lives. Opposition fighters recently started seizing bigger and bigger chunks of turf in northern Syria, and gaining ground around Damascus, the capital and center of the regime's power. The rebels have also been making huge gains on the diplomatic front, as the U.S., Europe, and their allies recognized a newly formed...

NATO missiles on the Turkey-Syria border: A big blow to Assad?

The Week — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:20:00 -0500

NATO agreed on Tuesday to deploy Patriot anti-missile batteries on Turkey's volatile border with Syria. Turkey, a NATO member, requested the firepower as Syrian refugees and rebels flood the area just across its southern border, and fears mount that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad is preparing to use chemical weapons against the rebels trying to push him out of power. "To the Turkish people we say: We are determined to defend you and your territory," says NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. "To anyone who would want to attack Turkey we say: Don't even think about it...

Why Bashar al-Assad unplugged the internet in Syria

The Week — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:35:00 -0500

At 5:26 a.m. New York time (12:26 p.m. in Damascus), Syria's internet went dark. According to two U.S. internet monitoring companies, Renesys and Akamai Technologies, Syria is now completely cut off from the e-world, with all internet connections down along with at least some phone service. "A smaller outage could be chalked up to an errant mortar shell," but the entire country? says Sam Biddle at Gizmodo. "Only the Syrian regime has the power to create that kind of lockout at will."

"Shutting down web and phone service is a tactic increasingly pursued by countries to limit the spread of information...

Have Syria's fractious rebels finally united?

The Week — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 10:55:00 -0500

Leaders of the famously scattered opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad signed a tentative unity deal on Sunday, possibly opening the door to international recognition of the rebel movement. Meeting in Qatar, the members of the new group, the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, selected a moderate Muslim cleric, Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, as their president. The new coalition, which joins the revolutionary councils of all 14 Syrian provinces, plus other rebel organizations, is intended to present a united front that can secure more international aid, including...

Why Obama will keep ignoring Syria in his second term

The Week — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 06:21:00 -0500

Now that President Obama has been re-elected, there will be considerably greater pressure on the administration to do more in response to the ongoing civil war in Syria. There will likely be increased domestic and international demands to put either Iran or Syria at the top of the administration's agenda at the beginning of the second term. But contrary to the hopes of interventionists and the fears of many Obama supporters, the president seems likely to resist this pressure and keep his attention focused primarily on domestic and fiscal concerns.

During the last year, there has been a widespread...

3 ways the Syria ceasefire could go wrong

The Week — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:35:00 -0400

United Nations-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi raised hopes for a break from the bloodshed in Syria on Wednesday, when he announced that the Syrian government and most rebel groups had agreed to a four-day ceasefire this weekend to mark the main Muslim holiday of the year. "If this humble initiative succeeds, we hope that we can build on it," Brahimi said. It remained unclear who would respect the temporary truce. The Syrian government said its military was still studying Brahimi's proposal and wouldn't say until Thursday whether it would honor the plan. Several opposition leaders said they didn...

Is U.S. policy helping jihadists in Syria?

The Week — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 15:45:00 -0400

Most of the weapons that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are funneling to rebels in Syria are winding up in the possession of Islamists, not the secular groups the U.S. and its Western allies want to help, reports David E. Sanger in The New York Times. That assessment, attributed to American officials and Middle Eastern diplomats, suggests that President Obama's strategy of avoiding direct involvement in the conflict isn't helping to realize the goal of propping up the pro-democracy opposition that's been fighting for a year and a half to get rid of President Bashar al-Assad. It also calls into question...

Is Turkey trying to start a war with Syria?

The Week — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 15:07:00 -0400

Tensions are continuing to rise on the Syria-Turkey border, where the two countries have been trading mortar blasts for six days. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Tuesday that the alliance had prepared plans in case it needs to step in and defend Turkey, a NATO member. Turkey's leaders, seeking support to push out Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, have repeatedly warned the U.S. and other allies that the fighting within Syria could spill over and cause a regional war. Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Monday that the "worst-case scenarios" were now starting to appear. Is Turkey...

Is Syria's war spreading to Turkey?

The Week — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:08:00 -0400

Turkey on Wednesday shelled targets in Syria for a second day, in response to a mortar attack near their shared border that killed five Turkish civilians. The Turkish parliament also passed a resolution authorizing further military strikes against Syria, fueling concerns that the two countries are on a path to war. Tensions between Syria and Turkey have been mounting for months, as Syrian refugees flood into Turkey, and rebel supplies pour into Syria in the opposite direction. And an escalating conflict could have global repercussions: Turkey is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization...

Are Syria's rebels guilty of war crimes?

The Week — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 13:06:00 -0400

Human Rights Watch this week released a stinging report accusing the Free Syrian Army of war crimes, from torture to executing captured government soldiers and other supporters of President Bashar al-Assad's regime. This isn't the first time the international human rights organization has warned that Syrian rebels were committing such abuses, although when the group sounded the alarm in March, it said the alleged culprits didn't appear to be under the control of any of the main opposition groups. Now Human Rights Watch is pointing fingers at the main armed opposition group. Does this mean Syria...