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Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

17 Jul

...is what they need to is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s all over… Blair: Dunno… Syria…. Bush: Why? Blair: Because I think this is all part of the same thing… Bush: (with mouth full of bread) Yeah Blair: Look – what does he think? He thinks if Lebanon turns out fine. If you get a solution in Israel and Palestine. Iraq goes in the right way Bush: Yeah – he’s [through] Blair: Yeah…. He’s had it. That’s what all this is about –...
17.07.06 | |

15 Aug

The United Nations Secretary General’s fifth Report on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was released last week. This Report is titled “State Responsibility and Prevention” and focuses generally on governance mechanisms and early warning. It also mentions the situation in Syria, stating that “[r]ecent events, including in the Syrian Arab Republic, underline the vital importance of early action to prevent atrocity crimes and the terrible consequences when prevention fails.” On the whole, the Report is consistent with prior work, but doesn’t contain much that is new. The Report focuses in...
15.08.13 | |

14 Jul

...on Saturday as a U.N. envoy warned of chaos if divided lawmakers did not make progress on Sunday towards naming a government. Europe must open its doors to more Syrian refugees, having welcomed only a “miniscule” number while Syria’s neighbors have reached “saturation point”, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday appointed veteran U.N. official Staffan de Mistura, a former U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan and Iraq, to replace Lakhdar Brahimi as the international mediator seeking an end to Syria’s civil war....
14.07.14 | |

25 Jul

Ghana’s President John Atta Mills has died, though details are unclear as to the cause of death. Foreign Policy has more here. Vice-President John Dramani Mahama has succeeded him, taking the oath of offices a few hours after the announcement of Mills’ death. Fighting has intensified in Syria’s Aleppo. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has joined the chorus of warning Syria against the use of chemical weapons. Israel’s foreign minister has stated that it will get involved in the Syrian conflict if the Syrian army loses control over its chemical...
25.07.12 | |

31 May

related news, an 11-year old survivor of the Houla massacre recounts how he avoided being executed by covering himself in his brother’s blood and playing dead. Syrian rebels have given the government 48 hours to withdrawal its troops and adhere to a UN-backed peace plan, otherwise they would renew their attempts for a coup. US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, believes that a political/diplomatic solution to the Syrian conflict is best. Russia has pledged to block the UN Security Council in any moves for intervention, claiming that any military...
31.05.12 | |

17 Feb

Regular readers of the blog know that one of my hobbyhorses is the “unwilling or unable” test for self-defense against non-state actors. As I have often pointed out, scholars seem much more enamored with the test than states. The newest (regrettable) case in point: my friend Claus Kress, who is one of the world’s best international-law scholars. Here is what he writes in an otherwise-excellent contribution to Just Security about the use of force against ISIL in Syria (emphasis mine): It therefore follows not only from the right of self-defense’s...
17.02.15 | |

03 Dec

...corrupt drug dealer. He is chief of the provincial council of Qandahar and said to be more powerful than the province’s governor. A US official wrote, “While we must deal with AWK as the head of the Provincial Council, he is widely understood to be corrupt and a narcotics trafficker. End Note.” 4. The Boston Globe reports of Senator John Kerry that he urged the return of the Golan Heights to Syria in return for peace: “In the meeting last February with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa...
03.12.10 | |

19 Jul

Fighting is still raging in Damascus, where yesterday many officials were killed by bombing attacks in Syria’s capital city. Meanwhile, China remains silent on its position ahead of a UN Security Council vote threatening with non-military sanctions. Al Jazeera offers the profiles of the slain ministers as well as an analysis of how these deaths will affect the regime. Foreign Policy outlines “Assad’s death spiral,” suggesting this may be the beginning of the end for Syria’s current regime. Laszlo Csatary, the “most-wanted” accused Nazi war criminal still at large was...
19.07.12 | |

24 Aug

...that we, as ordinary people, who do not have to fight in wars, still can pass moral and rational judgments on the people who do. The current Middle East conflict is a case in point.' As to 'Hezbollah's tactics of hiding among civilians,' please see, for instance, Mitch Prothero's piece, 'The "hiding among civilians" myth,' at Slate.com: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/07/28/hezbollah/ Seamus Let's not forget the situation in the Occupied Territories.... Please see: The B'Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories http://www.btselem.org/English/index.asp Palestinian Centre for Human Rights http://www.pchrgaza.org/...
24.08.06 | |

28 Apr

...the lives of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean must involve search and rescue operations near the shores of Libya, Amnesty International said on Saturday as hundreds more people arrived in Italy from North Africa. Americas U.S.-led forces targeted Islamic State militants in Syria with five air strikes from Sunday to Monday morning and conducted 26 strikes against the group in Iraq, the U.S. military said. Air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition in Syria have killed 2,079 people, including 66 civilians, since the start of the aerial campaign against Islamic State...
28.04.15 | |

06 Jun

South Korea has agreed to negotiate with North Korea on the reopening of a joint industrial park that was closed in April after rising tensions. The ICC Prosecutor has reported to the UN Security Council on the situation in Darfur. The EU Counter-Terrorism Co-ordinator wants member states to do more to restrict their citizens travelling to Syria to fight with extremist groups. Syrian rebels have seized the only border crossing between Syria and Israel on the Golan Heights. The IMF has issued a report admitting that it made mistakes in...
06.06.13 | |

24 Aug

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Suspected Boko Haram militants ambushed a convoy carrying Nigeria’s chief of army staff on a tour of towns in troubled Borno state, the army said early on Sunday. Middle East and Northern Africa The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has blown up a 2,000-year-old temple in the UNESCO-listed Syrian city of Palmyra, a rights group and the country’s antiquities chief have said. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has said that its...
24.08.15 | |