Next Cold War 2/22/16 Saber Rattling Saudi FM Tells Der Spiegel Saudis Want Syrian Rebels MANPADs. _ “In an interview, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir expresses his continued support for regime change in Syria and his desire for rebels to be supplied with anti-aircraft missiles that could shift the balance

Next Cold War Roundup 2/17/16 Obama’s Harsh Remarks for Russia _ At the ASEAN conference, Obama received questions about recent advances by the Syria-Russia coalition.  His position sounds very much like a return to the aggressive, neocon + interventionist blend that had been toned down in the past month or

Next Cold War Roundup 2-15-16 The Munich Security Conference, which turned into a summit for negotiations and discussions on the broadening and escalating Syrian war, concluded with an agreement to work on cessation of hostilities and humanitarian aid for beseiged areas — an agreement that few have confidence will change

The worsening defeat of “moderate” rebels in Syria may boost prospects for peace talks, but it won’t solve the root causes of conflict in the Middle East.

Next Cold War Roundup 2/3/16 Geneva 3 peace talks are faltering. Both parties admit they never fully began. The Syrian army and coalition advance in northwest Syria intensifies.  The map above shows the encircling of the critical city of Aleppo. Two Shiite enclaves besieged for 3+ years by the opposition were freed which

Next Cold War Roundup 2/1/16 Syrian Peace Talks After delays and controversies, the Geneva 3 Syrian peace talks are proceeding, despite many experts’ doubts that they would ever get started or produce any useful results.  The Saudi-backed High Negotiating Committee arrived in Geneva after receiving some assurances from the US

Next Cold War Roundup 1/29 Turkey Threatens to Enter War on Syrian Border. _ The Times in UK claims that Russia is working on a deal to create a Kurdish “enclave” and the Times frames this as a Russia provoking Turkey: “Kremlin provokes Akara with deal to secure Kurd enclave“:

Next Cold War Roundup 1/18/16 Iran Sanctions Lifted, Prisoners Swapped, US Treasury Slapped New Ballistic Program Sanctions "We’ve achieved this historic progress through diplomacy, without resorting to another war in the Middle East." —@POTUS #IranDeal — The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 17, 2016   _ #JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal) criteria were

Next Cold War Roundup 1/11/16 Misinformation from Media and Activists Caused Confusion About the Status of Starving Population Under Siege in Syria _ There is no doubt that siege is used as a weapon by all belligerents in the Syrian war — the Syrian government, the opposition fighters, Al Qaeda and

Next Cold War Roundup 1/8/16 Libya _ Thank goodness someone reads email news dumps slipped in on holidays. In this case it was the excellent investigative journalist, Brad Hoff. The New Year’s Eve release of Hillary Clinton emails now show that she was “getting personally briefed on the battlefield crimes”