When the city falls to the regime, through blood or by negotiation, the war against Assad will, finally, be lost.
History shows that Israel’s military occupations cannot be sustained indefinitely.
The Syrian president is now far more secure than in 2013, when the West decided not to intervene. The latest air strikes do not change that.
The US has tried to turn away from the Middle East, leaving Russia as the dominant foreign power.
Across the Middle East the lack of jobs, particularly for the under-thirties, is creating a rage that always simmers and sometimes boils.
They cling to time in the water, if they can get it, as a last vestige of the lives they used to have.
In a complicated fight in a densely populated city such as Mosul, civilians will die. But under international humanitarian law, belligerents must do all they can to protect them.
Aleppo once housed the greatest souk in the Levant, but now it’s a city in ruins and the people are gone.
There is a specific word for the melancholy of Istanbul. The city is suffering a mighty bout of something like hüzün at the moment.
Scarred by bombs and the rise of jihadists, Iraq has not had a day of real peace since the 2003 invasion.
