Category Archives: syria news

What hand will The Donald play on Syria?

WHAT does the election of billionaire property developer and reality tv star, Donald Trump, mean for terrorised Syrians? Some pro-Syrian commentators have hailed Trump’s rise to the top job in Washington as a breakthrough but that city’s leading newspaper counsels caution, … Continue reading

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Al sham – the name says it all

WHEN are the lads from Al-Qaeda not such a bad lot, after all? When they are having a crack at the Middle East’s last remaining secular government, it seems. That’s right, Al Qaeda – the mob who flew into the … Continue reading

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Disown the fundamentalists, Archbishop pleads with West

ALEPPO’S Catholic Archbishop is urging the west to drop its support for jihadi fighters and to, instead, back Syrians battling to free their second city. Monsignor Jean-Clement Jeanbart has called on France and other western nations to turn their backs … Continue reading

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Propaganda and the ABC of war

By road, it is 626km from Mosul, Iraq, to Aleppo in Syria – the same distance, give or take a quick detour to pick up a kebab, as Sydney to Grafton in northern New South Wales. Makes you wonder why … Continue reading

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Moderates – what moderates?

SOME US foreign policy analysts concede it is time for a “ruthless” look at whether CIA-backed fighters in Syria can be considered “moderate”, the Washington Post reports A senior US official told the Post this week, the battlefield performance of … Continue reading

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Australia has Syrian blood on its hands!

Up till now Australia has been trying to keep a low profile in the Syrian conflict. We do what the US tells us to do but we stay out of the front lines as far as possible, presumably because the … Continue reading

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Mufti Hassoun speaks about his grief for Aleppo

On May 2nd, 2016, the Daily Mail published a damning article about Dr Hassoun, the Grand Mufti of Syria, claiming that he had issued a fatwa calling for the ‘extermination’ of civilians in Aleppo. Of course there was no such … Continue reading

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Pope Francis calls for peace in Syria

“How can you believe in someone who caresses you with the right hand and strikes you with the left hand?” These are the powerful and pointed words of one of the greatest spiritual leaders the church has seen in my … Continue reading

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Syria has won the war! (almost)

Traditional wisdom tells us that we shouldn’t count our chickens before they hatch. Even so, it is hard to resist celebrating the most recent developments in the war on Syria. Thanks to a bit of help from mother Russia, it … Continue reading

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Syrian crisis requires friendship, not aggression

The following article was officially co-authored by Professor Tim Anderson and myself (though it was largely Tim’s work with some tweaking from me). Tim and I were together in Syria for the latter part of July though we had come with slightly … Continue reading

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