Author Archives: jonathanspyer

The Tower Magazine, 4/3/16 The Syrian civil war is a disaster of historic proportions that shows no sign of ending anytime soon. The latest figures suggest that it has killed nearly half a million people, making it the greatest catastrophe … Continue reading →

Jerusalem Post, 19/2 Over the ruined landscape of northern Syria, a number of core factors which today define the strategic reality of the Middle East are colliding.  Close observation of that blighted area therefore offers clues as to the current … Continue reading →

Jerusalem Post, 6/2 UN Special Envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura this week announced the suspension of just-convened peace talks in Geneva intended to resolve the Syrian civil war.   The failure of the talks was predictable, and foreseen by … Continue reading →

A more detailed report on the SDF, deriving from information obtained during my visit to Syria in December, appeared in Janes Intelligence Review in January, 2016. Here is a link to the report, which is behind a paywall and can … Continue reading →

The Australian, 23/1   In northern Syria, a new military alliance is making headway against IS   Kobani is a good place to start.  This once anonymous Kurdish town on the Syrian-Turkish border was the subject last year of the … Continue reading →

  Jerusalem Report, 18/1 Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, in the last days of 2015 is a place that appears to have risen from a near-death experience. In the summer of 2014, the fighters of the Islamic State (IS) got to … Continue reading →

PJmedia, 19/1 On a recent reporting trip to Iraq and northern Syria, two things were made apparent to me — one of them relatively encouraging, the other far less so. The encouraging news is that ISIS is currently in a state … Continue reading →

Jerusalem Post, 8/1 Saudi-Iranian confrontation reflects key Mideast trend lines The decision by Saudi Arabia to sever diplomatic relations with Iran following the burning of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran is an escalation in an enmity of long standing between … Continue reading →

  http://www.rubincenter.org/2015/12/the-rubin-center-needs-your-support-to-continue-its-groundbreaking-research-make-your-tax-deductible-donation-before-the-end-of-the-year/

Australian, 28/11 The downing of the Russian Suk­hoi SU-24 bomber over Turkish airspace this week is a dramatic escalation in an already existing situation of tacit conflict between Moscow and Ankara in and over the ravaged landscape of northern Syria. … Continue reading →