Qifa Nabki
Middle East
Syria: Conveniently Vulnerable Once Again?
A few days ago, the prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Daniel Bellemare, filed an amended indictment in the investigation of the 2005 murder of Rafiq al-Hariri. The only details reported about the new indictment were that it contained “substantive new elements,” which is what passes for breaking news on the STL front. Today, … Continue reading
Talking about a Revolution: An Interview with Camille Otrakji
And now for something completely different. If you’ve been following events in Syria, you’d know that the English-language press is mostly deeply critical of the Assad regime (while the Arabic press displays a slightly wider range of views). I thought it would be worth trying to present a minority report on the situation from a … Continue reading
Bashar al-Assad’s National Address Disappoints
As I expected, Bashar al-Assad’s speech today was completely reactionary and devoid of any bold conciliatory gestures… Ok, so that’s not exactly what I expected. Let me be the first to admit that I was surprised by Bashar al-Assad’s disappointing (and, in my opinion, dangerously conservative) address to the Syrian people, earlier today. Rather than … Continue reading
Bashar al-Assad to Face the Nation
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is scheduled to address his people tomorrow afternoon, one day after sacking his cabinet in the wake of increasingly bloody nationwide protests. Speculation is rampant on Twitter, Facebook, and the media about what al-Assad is likely to say. In my view, he has two broad options: He can play the blame … Continue reading
Syria and the Arab Rebellion
It’s Syria’s turn. Some friends and colleagues better positioned than I to speculate on the likely outcome of the protests in Der`aa have promised to write a few commentaries on the subject, perhaps early next week. In the meantime, let’s have an open forum on the subject. Please do post links to news items and … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…