Qifa Nabki
Jabhat al-Nusra
Assad and ISIS
A veteran journalist, Roy Gutman, has written a series of three articles for the Daily Beast with the suggestive titles, “Assad Henchman: Here’s How We Built ISIS” (part 1); “How Assad Staged Alqaeda Bombings” (part 2); and “How ISIS returned to Syria” (part 3). The gist of the series is that the Assad regime was complicit … Continue reading
Abbas on Syria
I’m in Beirut for a few weeks this month, seeing family and attending weddings. The mood is eerily pleasant, though now that the Eid has passed everyone seems to be bracing themselves for the return to arms. I caught up with my friend Abbas yesterday. Some of you may remember him from his appearances in … Continue reading
Operation Strange Bedfellows
The last ten years have witnessed some of the strangest contortions in Middle Eastern political history. Tracking the maneuvers and realignments of Lebanese, Syrian, Qatari, Turkish, Palestinian, Saudi, and Israeli leaders as they navigated the shoals of SALSRA, the STL, the Doha Accord, the July War, the Iraq War, the Turkish flotilla incident, Operation Cast … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…