by Robert E. Hunter The United Nation Security Council has agreed to a ceasefire in Syria, “a durable humanitarian pause for at least 30 consecutive days throughout [the country].” Like all such agreements, it contains a lot of “ifs” and… Continue Reading
by Gregory Shupak Israel claimed that it intercepted an Iranian drone in Israeli airspace on Saturday, February 10; Iran denied that it had a drone there. Israel then bombed a Syrian airbase, saying it was the command-and-control center from which… Continue Reading
by Paul R. Pillar The cauldron of intervention known as the Syrian war has recently become even more likely to boil over than it was just a few weeks ago. There are two immediate dangers of escalation. One is the… Continue Reading
by Reese Erlich When President Barack Obama started bombing Syria in 2014, he enjoyed bipartisan support in Washington, D.C. Americans were appalled by the atrocities of the Islamic State, which had massacred Yazidis, and seized swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq.… Continue Reading
by International Crisis Group The Syrian war has entered a new stage with the regime of Bashar al-Assad gaining the upper hand. Israel, no longer content to remain a bystander as Damascus’s position improves, is now jockeying to reverse the… Continue Reading