Search: Syria Insta-Symposium
07 Dec Weekday News Wrap: Friday, December 7, 2012
Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez will miss Friday’s regional trade summit in Brazil, raising questions about his health. US warships are shifting in order to monitor the planned rocket launch by North Korea, while the US still urges Pyongyang to cancel this exercise. Violence has surged around Damascus as Syrian government forces shell rebel-controlled areas. The UN Special Envoy for Syria held discussions with US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, and her Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on a creative solution for Syria that may involve ousting President Assad. The King of...04 Sep Weekday News Wrap: Wednesday, September 4, 2013
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the US has agreed upon a draft AUMF, authorizing President Obama to carry out strikes in Syria. Foreign Policy has a post warning that this 60-day authorization may be just a prelude to intervention in the Middle East as well as a piece entitled The Syrian Abyss. Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country may approve a military operation in Syria if evidence shows that Damascus carried out chemical weapons attacks, but only if the operation is conducted with U.N. approval. Kenya’s parliament debated...11 Sep Is it Legal? No.
Let’s start with the Administration’s newly minted theory (h/t Marty Lederman for posting the operative statement) that the statutory 2001 AUMF authorizes the President’s announced campaign to use force against ISIL in Iraq and Syria. The AUMF does not plausibly extend to ISIL. In addition to the reasons my friends Jens Ohlin, Jen Daskal and others have already highlighted, let me add this: ISIL is not an “associated force” of Al Qaeda by the Administration’s own definition. In May 2013, former State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh gave a speech...21 Aug Weekday News Wrap, Tuesday, August 21, 2012
As UN monitors left Syria, fighting progressed to suburbs of Damascus. US president Barack Obama has said that if Syria’s government were to use chemical weapons, the US would be forced to act. German politicians have said that they will give no leeway to Greece regarding financial reform. Israel has positioned an Iron Dome, a rocket interceptor and destroyer, on the Egyptian border following two rocket attacks on the city of Eilat. The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counterterrorism says that the US government must allow investigation into...25 Aug Members of UN Security Council Discuss LGBT Issues
13 of the 15 members of the UN Security Council met yesterday to address LGBT issues for the first time in a closed session chaired by Chile and the US. The focus was on persecution of gays in Syria and Iraq. As an Arria-formula meeting, the discussion was confidential, however news reports after indicate the group discussed the Islamic State’s targeting of LGBTQ residents of Iraq and Syria. Samantha Power, US Ambassador to the UN, told the diplomats that “we are coming together as a Security Council to condemn these...
02 Jul Some (Tongue in Cheek) Advice for Iran Regarding Trump
...international court with it. Syria would be an obvious choice. Maybe Venezuela for some regional diversity. The International Court of Iran, Syria, and Venezuela™ (ICISV) could then prosecute Trump despite his personal immunity — and just as importantly, Iran would then be free to arrest Trump and surrender him to the ICISV, because the Jordan Appeals Chamber has also told us that personal immunity does not apply when a state is acting on an international court’s behalf: 114. The absence of a rule of customary international law recognising Head of...05 Dec Weekday News Wrap: Wednesday, December 5, 2012
to protect Turkey against a Syrian attack. Additionally, NATO has warned Syria against using chemical weapons, with an immediate international response as the consequence. The Guardian is reporting that the former spokesman of the Syrian foreign affairs ministry has defected and is on his way to the US. Mali’s government has agreed to holding peace talks with two separatist rebel groups. The European Union is mulling a collective response to Israel’s planned expansion of settlements into the West Bank, while Germany’s Angela Merkel is nonplussed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...04 Mar Tracking State Reactions to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: A Resource for Research
By now, many readers -especially those who follow me on Twitter, will have figured out that I have a weird hobby: I like keeping track of who says what about international law in times of crisis. I’ve done it for the Syria strikes of 2018, the Venezuelan elections of 2018, the recognition of Juan Guaidó as President of Venezuela in 2019, the attack on Qasem Soleimani in 2020, and now, of course, the crisis in Ukraine. In the beginning, I tracked the reactions to Russia’s recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk...29 Apr Weekday News Wrap: Monday, April 29, 2013
According to a recent report, tens of millions of dollars from the CIA were delivered to the office of Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai over the course of decades, meant to buy US influence in Afghanistan. Syria’s neighbors are wary of a US-led intervention, should the US decide to take military action in the face of new evidence of chemical weapon use by the Syrian government–evidence that Syria claims is “inconsistent with reality and a barefaced lie.” Iraq’s media regulator has suspended licenses of ten broadcasters, including Al-Jazeera, accusing them of...25 Apr Weekly News Wrap: Monday, April 25, 2016
Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Zambia’s government is trying to send hundreds of refugees back to camps after two people were burned to death in anti-immigration riots in the country’s capital, Lusaka. Heavy fighting between a local militia and Ethiopian paramilitary militia known as the Liyu Police broke out in Galgadud region of central Somalia, residents said on Saturday. Middle East and Northern Africa The UN special envoy for Syria has estimated that 400,000 people have been killed throughout...