Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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Iranian president Hassan Rouhani waves to supporters as his motorcade leaves Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport upon his arrival from New York, on September 28, 2013. (AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE)

Opinion: Will it be a case of déjà vu for Rouhani?

by Michel Kilo | Oct 29, 2013 | Opinion

By electing Rouhani—a friend of Rafsanjani, a moderate, and a reformer—as Ahmadinejad’s successor, Iran has placed itself at a difficult crossroads. It has made a political choice with complex dimensions. Perhaps it wanted to help itself end an extremely costly...

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A boy sits beside a damaged building in Douma, eastern Ghouta, September 18, 2013. (Reuters)

Opinion: Starving to Death

by Michel Kilo | Oct 20, 2013 | Opinion

Bashar Al-Assad’s army has been besieging the people in Eastern and Western Ghouta and Homs for over a year. However, having failed to break the will of the people through prolonged siege and violence, the regime has now dispatched mercenaries to these areas to...

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An Islamist rebel fighter looks on as he holds weapons in the Salaheddin district of the war-battered northern Syrian city of Aleppo on October 2, 2013. (AFP PHOTO/KARAM AL-MASRI)

Opinion: Prospects for Syria are Growing Bleaker

by Michel Kilo | Oct 13, 2013 | Opinion

The Syrian scene is witnessing significant transformations that are changing the nature of the battle raging there. This is not only because of the new armed forces joining the ones that have been fighting for more than 30 months, but also due to the new agendas that...

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Free Syrian Army fighter sits on the edge of a balcony in Ain-Assan village in southern countryside of Aleppo September 27, 2013. REUTERS/Molhem Barakat (SYRIA – Tags: CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT)

Opinion: Defectors from Assad’s army have a lot to teach the FSA

by Michel Kilo | Sep 29, 2013 | Opinion

A few days ago, I traveled to the so-called Officers Camp in Al-Raihaniya, where, for the first time since the start of the revolution, I met two of the main militant groups. The first group was comprised of former civilians who come from the Mount of the Kurds...

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A United Nations (UN) arms expert collects samples as they inspect the site where rockets had fallen in Damascus’ eastern Ghouta suburb during an investigation into a suspected chemical weapons strike near the capital. AFP PHOTO /AMMAR AL-ARBINI

Opinion: Why did the Assad regime use chemical weapons?

by Michel Kilo | Aug 31, 2013 | Opinion

So just why did the Assad regime use chemical weapons? A simple and direct answer to that question is that the Assad regime used chemical weapons because criminality is a core philosophy of this regime, which has ruled Syria over the past five decades according to the...