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Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

27 Sep

As Ken notes below, the draft UN Security Council Resolution regarding the disposition of Syria’s chemical weapons is now available. While it can’t be construed as authorizing the use of force against Syria to ensure compliance without further Security Council action – entirely consistent with the Council’s past practice in Iraq, Kosovo, and elsewhere with slowly escalating Security Council threats and then reality of sanctions it decides to impose – marks an obvious and large step forward in what had, until a few weeks ago, been a seemingly intractable disaster....
27.09.13 | |

02 Jun

...British government is strongly considering providing weapons to rebels in Syria — and that the CIA has already facilitated weapons shipments to the rebels from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. There is no question that that much of the fighting being waged by rebel groups in Syria is perfectly lawful under international humanitarian law. But there is also no question — as the Commission of Inquiry on Syria and Human Rights Watch have richly documented — that rebel groups have also committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity. Unless...
02.06.13 | |

25 Aug

...nuclear inspectors access to a military base that they have been seeking to visit since 2005, Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehgan has said. More than 191,000 people have died in Syria, United Nation human rights chief Navi Pillay has said, lashing out at “international paralysis” on the nearly three-and-a-half year conflict. In her last address to the Security Council, the UN human rights chief sharply criticised the body for its ineffectiveness on Syria and other intractable conflicts, saying its members have often put national interests ahead of stopping mass atrocities....
25.08.14 | |

10 Nov

ad bellum issue does not arise, but there still might or might not be violations of the jus in bello. Syria certainly poses a jus ad bellum issue, but there the US justification might not be preemptive self-defense, but self-defense against an armed attack that was already committed by a non-state actor operating from Syrian territory, which Syria failed to prevent. In any case it is hard to say more about these events without knowing much, much more about the actual facts. Guneysu In addition to what Milan has written,...
10.11.08 | |

31 Aug

...foreign minister’s visit is expected to defuse tensions between Iraq and Syria after Baghdad’s allegations that Damascus was harboring insurgents responsible for the recent truck bombings in Baghdad. “Iraq’s stance is to go on demanding the UN to form an international criminal court to prosecute the perpetrators of these brutal crimes against innocent Iraqis and targeted the security and stability of Iraq,” a statement from Maliki’s office quoted him as saying. Maliki reiterated Iraq’s firm stance of demanding Syria to handover senior members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party whom Baghdad...
31.08.09 | |

14 Sep

...for theology. Indeed, ‘his arguments against philosophy are themselves philosophical’ (Leaman 2002: 27). Islamic philosophy proper begins under the auspices of the ‘Abbāsid dynasty in the third/ninth century. Its origins are principally Greek, although it was transmitted largely by Christian scholars translating philosophical and other works into Arabic (with some of these from Syriac translations of Greek manuscripts). Of lesser but not insignificant impact was the rendering of Indian and Persian literature likewise into Arabic. Many Muslims did not welcome works of Peripatetic (Aristotelian and Pseudo-Aristotelian) and Neoplatonic provenance into...
14.09.06 | |

10 Sep

...sovereignty issues will be triggered. In Syria, the situation is more complicated. U.S. forces will be acting with the consent of the opposition there, though whether Assad will give his consent to operations in Syria seems unlikely. But perhaps the U.S. will rely exclusively on proxy forces in Syria. He was vague on this. There was no discussion of Security Council authorization, though he did discuss the need for a coalition to fight ISIS. My view is that ISIS represents a far greater threat than al-Qaeda ever posed. ISIS currently...
10.09.14 | |

06 Mar

...translation). The letter acknowledges that there are no longer clear boundaries between Iraq and Syria, and that IS presence in Syria poses a direct threat to Iraq. The letter expresses understanding for the American efforts against IS in Syria, while observing that the US has invoked the right of collective self-defence under Article 51 UN Charter. On the other hand, it is noted that: ‘strict conditions apply for the exercise of this right, especially when an (imminent) armed attack emanates from an armed group such as IS. What is determining...
06.03.15 | |

08 Jan

...U.S. Citizen going to Syria—with no relatives over in the Middle East... Hakeem Haseeb—was not use to Syria—and he died with my child while trying to survive over there. Trying to put propane in a Gas Tank in their apartment building. Living on $50 a month and being supported by Syrian Muslims—-and the country of Syria claims they had no formal knowledge that Hakeem and Adam Haseeb were in their Country?? Back in the year 2000—There was no War going on—so I felt the State Department and the US Embassy...
08.01.07 | |

09 May

...time when those initiatives were launched, that is what the states then felt they could achieve. That was a political, not legal, calculation. 3) We don’t have any actual decision or pronouncement on the legality of the veto in the face of atrocity crimes; we have no ruling whether there are or aren’t any restraints imposed by international law. 4) The Syria vetoes aren’t about authorizing outside intervention—which I agree can cause more harm than good. Look at the actual Syria vetoes (cited in an early post of mine) –...
09.05.18 | |

28 Aug

On the day we mark 100 years of the Peace Palace in The Hague, the US and its allies are readying for a military intervention in Syria with Australia saying it would back military action, even without a Security Council resolution. Action may come within days. China’s top paper accused the US of wanting regime change in Syria and likened any military action the US might take to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein 10 years. The Long War Journal reports that jihadists in the area are also concerned about US...
28.08.13 | |

23 Sep

I agree with Jens’ excellent post on the importance of the “unwilling or unable” standard to the US justification for legal strikes on non-state actors in Syria. I agree this action may reveal state practice supporting (or rejecting) this legal justification. I am curious whether the UK, France, or other states that may be participating in Syria strikes will embrace this theory. (I already know the Russians have roundly rejected this US justification). I also wonder whether this legal justification will weaken, as a policy matter, the ability of the...
23.09.14 | |