Daniel Gerlach
Once perceived as a mere spoiler, Russia has become an agenda-setting power in the Middle East. Now that the US have pulled out politically, expectations are even higher. Can the Russians handle them?
It’s time to look beyond the “original sins” of the Sykes-Picot Agreement and European interventions in the Middle East. Europeans should calmly make plans for the region’s future, but explain their intentions clearly.
Without a proper appraisal of the past, the violence in Middle East will continue to echo throughout the region and cause ever greater devastation.
The extremist Islamic State group has exploited its takeover and destruction of the Palmyra military prison for its propaganda purposes. To understand why this has been so effective, one needs to look back at what happened there in the summer of 1980.