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Ed Webb

Is Turkey's Foreign Policy Really Sunni? - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East - 0 views

www.al-monitor.com/...rkey-sunni-foreign-policy.html

Turkey Syria Iran Iraq sectarianism diplomacy IR

shared by Ed Webb on 11 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • it would be wrong to believe that bigoted Sunnis in Ankara embarked on an anti-Shiite mission in the Middle East that has left Turkey at odds with central governments in Syria, Iraq, and ultimately in Iran. To the contrary, Ankara has gone to great lengths to avoid the region's sectarianism, but its efforts have not been very fruitful.
  • it would be also wrong to assume that the reality of sectarianism in the Middle East isn't influencing feelings in Ankara and in Turkish society more broadly. The Alawite-Sunni conflict in Syria is creating bitterness between Turkey's Alevis and Sunnis, although violence seems highly improbable. On the other hand, Turkey is indeed beginning to be perceived as a Sunni power in the region.
Ed Webb

Turkey-Israel-Cyprus Triangle And Mediterranean Gas - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Midd... - 0 views

www.readability.com/...hsirzmwj

Turkey Cyprus Israel oil UN

shared by Ed Webb on 10 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • As the Turkish-Israeli relationship deteriorated3, Greek Cyprus and Israel started to build a strategic partnership. In February 2012, Benjamin Netanyahu became the first Israeli prime minister to visit Nicosia, where he agreed with President Demetris Christofias to launch a joint natural gas and oil exploration venture in their adjoining territorial waters. Speaking to Al-Monitor, Mehmet Ali Talat, former president of the TRNC, summed up this new close friendship in the region as, “my enemy’s enemy is my friend.”
  • While the current political atmosphere between Ankara and Tel-Aviv is at a stalemate, a sealed agreement under today’s conditions between Greek Cyprus and Israel would kill all the possibilities for healing the rift between Israel and Turkey.
Ed Webb

No Surrender - By Emile Hokayem | Foreign Policy - 0 views

www.foreignpolicy.com/...no_surrender

Syria authoritarianism civil_war assad analysis opinion

shared by Ed Webb on 07 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • A presidential election is scheduled to take place then, at which point the regime could come up with an elaborate show of arguably fabricated legitimacy
  • he can afford to be the country's strongest warlord as long as he benefits from foreign assistance, faces a divided opposition, and can blackmail his foreign foes into inaction
  • Even as the regime behaves like a militia, Assad also still aims to embody a functioning Syrian state, thus placating urban fence-sitters who are still attached to that illusion, as well as Syrians who have been alienated by the rebels
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • power in Damascus never resided in formal institutions, which have become even less relevant as the uprising has dragged on and Assad increasingly depends on clan and sectarian loyalties
  • the regime's capacity, resources, and support base are eroding steadily, even accelerating at times. But lost in the endless talk of an imminent endgame is the reality that the regime is not yet in a state of panic: It can still make rational decisions about its allocation of resources, and its forces often choose which area to defend, pummel, retake, or abandon
  • As long as Western states don't increase their material support, the coalition will remain extremely vulnerable -- and Assad knows that. The coalition has to prove itself and offer an inclusive message. He doesn't.
  • Russian leverage over Assad has been overstated and Assad has clearly signaled that no U.N. action would sway him
  • A political solution will be needed at a later stage -- not with Assad, but with the remnants of his regime
Ed Webb

President al-Assad : Out of Womb of Pain, Hope Should Be Begotten, from Suffe... - 0 views

www.sana-syria.com/...460536.htm

Syria politics

shared by Ed Webb on 06 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Ed Webb on 06 Jan 13
     
    Does he believe what he says? What are his aims?
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