This year, Aleppo will produce no soap. The late-medieval souks in which craftsmen fashioned blocks of the famous olive oil…
Continue reading →The colonial-era division of spoils draws a map of Syria’s uncertainty
Syrians used to tell a joke about a survey that asked “what is your opinion of eating meat?” This was…
Continue reading →A hostage’s daydream
The 25th anniversary of my kidnapping – as I imagined it, and as it is
Continue reading →Syria’s refugees pay a cruel price as the conflict keeps spreading
A Syrian friend of mine complained, rightly, that both sides in the country’s civil war have had a hand in…
Continue reading →Charles Glass: With Annan’s Exit and Influx of Foreign Arms, Syria’s Violence “Seems the Only Way Out”
Kofi Annan’s resignation is a serious setback for anyone who’d hoped that there could be a diplomatic resolution to this…
Continue reading →Alexander Cockburn: Crusading reporter and polemicist who was unafraid to espouse unpopular causes
Reporter, polemicist, pamphleteer, champion of the downtrodden, horseman, and classic car collector, Alexander Cockburn set a high standard of crusading…
Continue reading →Syria can be preserved by the subtle route of compromise
In the past week, Syrian opposition groups have issued two contrasting appeals to the international community. On Saturday 28 July,…
Continue reading →The Country That Is the World: Syria’s Clashing Communities
The population of Syria is so inharmonious a gathering of widely different races in blood, in creed, and in custom,…
Continue reading →Syria’s many new friends are a self-interested bunch
Last week France hosted the third conference of the Group of Friends of the Syrian People, a collection of 107…
Continue reading →Syria: The Citadel & the War
Archaeologists believe that human beings settled on the hilltop that became Aleppo – some 225 miles north of Damascus –…
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