Tag Archives: USA

12May/08

Europe’s New Middle East Darling

Europe and the Middle East, Middle East, Syria, , ,

Friday, November 19, 2004

By Nir Boms and Erick Stakelbeck

With Yasser Arafat’s death, Europe has lost its oldest and dearest Arab despot. But the race to replace him as the European Union’s favored Middle East tyrant has already begun – and we seem to have a winner. Late last month, just days before Arafat was flown to Paris to receive medical treatment, the European Commission and Syria signed an “Association Agreement” that strengthened Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad’s iron grip on power. Amazingly, this significant development was all but ignored by the Western media.

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12May/08

A Twist of Faith in Syria

Middle East, Syria, ,

By Nir Boms
Published July 28, 2006

Another bomb of Syrian origin exploded – but this time it did not hit Haifa, Israel, but rather Washington. Although its impact inside the corridors of the Capitol, where it was quietly detonated, was barely noticed, it was felt in the Middle East and has given Syrian dictator Bashar Assad another reason to worry. 

The “bomb”: a well-known and respected Sufi scholar from Syria, Sheikh Abdullah AlgharibAlhamadAltamimee, stepped off a plane in Washington and publicly called for Mr. Assad’s ouster. While the development may not appear significant on the surface, the sheikh has broken the thousand-year-old Sufi tradition of refraining from politics. 

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12May/08

Unsilenced Voices

Middle East, Syria, , , , ,

The road to Damascus.
November 30, 2005.

By Nir Boms

With increasing international pressure over the U.N. investigation into the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, Syria’s young president, Bashar al-Assad, has taken the identification of his country with the Assad name to new levels. In a recent speech he defiantly stated: “It will not be President Assad who will bow his head nor the head of his country. We only bow to God almighty.” As he desperately calls for an emergency meeting of the Arab league that might help alleviate the growing international pressures, Assad is trying to reassert control in a troubled country that now must handle parallel attacks from the United Nations, United States, and, increasingly, the Syrian opposition.

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11May/08

Axis or Not

Middle East, Syria, , , , , , ,

May 19, 2004
By Nir Boms

As news of the Abu Ghraib scandal and Nicholas Berg’s beheading dominates the headlines, American media have all but ignored one of the most significant developments since President Bush’s now-famous 2002 “axis of evil” statement: the presidential signature on sanctions against Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

In accordance with the Syria Accountability Act, President Bush imposed sanctions on Syria for “supporting terrorism, continuing its occupation of Lebanon, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and missile programs, and undermining United States and international efforts with respect to the stabilization and reconstruction of Iraq.”

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