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14/06/2013

Conflicts Forum Weekly Comment

This 'Weekly Comment' is produced most Fridays by Conflicts Forum with links to key articles published in the regional and international media during the past week.

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7 – 14 June 2013 The polls on the eve of the Iranian Presidential elections (14 June) mark some important shifts in the positioning of the leading

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Challenging perspectives on Islamism and politics in the Middle East

Conflicts Forum aims to shift Western opinion towards a deeper, less compartmentalised understanding of Islam and the Middle East.
By examining problems in terms of differences of thinking, language and intellectual and metaphysical traditions, we attempt to frame differences as more than simple struggles for power. Although not a particular focus of our work, reconciliation is sometimes an outcome of what we do.
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03/02/2012 Article

UN Shenanigans on Syria

Attempts are being made to circumscribe discussion limiting it solely to proposals from the Arab League Secretary General and al-Thani whose explicit agenda is regime change.

/ Aisling Byrne

Tags: Democracy, Middle East, Syria, United Nations

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Article originally posted on Asia Times, 03 February 2012 “Viscous nasty business” … “aggressive pressure … by US diplomats”, “ferocious pressure on weaker non-permanent members”,

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05/01/2012 Article

A Mistaken Case for Syrian Regime Change

Arguably, the most important component in this struggle has been the deliberate construction of a largely false narrative pitting unarmed democracy demonstrators against an oppressive regime.

/ Aisling Byrne

Tags: Democracy, Iran, Middle East, Syria

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Article posted on Asia Times Online on 05 January 2012 and republished by Counterpunch in the USA. “War with Iran is already here,” wrote a

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21/11/2011 Publication

Understanding Hizbullah’s Support for the Asad Regime

/ Amal Saad-Ghorayeb

Tags: Hezbollah, Syria

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04/11/2011 Article

Syria and Iran: The Great Game

This is today's “great game” – losing Syria. And this is how it is played.

/ Alastair Crooke

Tags: Democracy, Iran, Obama administration, Syria

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Article posted on The Guardian, 04 November 2011 This summer a senior Saudi official told John Hannah, Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, that from

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01/11/2011 Article

Foreign Intervention in Syria: No Room for Equivocation

These fears are not based on a general reading of the situation, but on concrete evidence about the course the US, Europe, and their Arab clients have decided to take.

/ Ibrahim Al-Amin

Tags: Middle East, Syria

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Article posted on Al-Akhbar English, 01 November 2011 Syria today is approaching a new crossroads… These fears are not based on a general reading of

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22/10/2011 Article

The ‘Great Game’ in Syria

This is today's "great game": the US-instigated "color" revolutions in former Soviet republics have given way to a bloodier, more multi-layered process today, but the psychology remains unchanged.

/ Alastair Crooke

Tags: Obama administration, Syria

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Article posted on Asia Times Online, 22 October 2011 This summer, a senior Saudi official told John Hannah [1], former United States vice president Dick

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