By Gwynne Dyer - Take a moment, first, to celebrate the fall of a regime of surpassing evil even by the demanding standards of the Middle East. Father and son, the Assad regime oppressed and abused the Syrian people for 53 years, and now it is gone in a week. Even the American-backed regime in Afghanistan did not fall that fast.
Rebel forces in Syria have unveiled the opulent lifestyle of former President Bashar al-Assad after storming his presidential palace in Damascus. Videos circulated online show a fleet of luxury cars, including Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, and Mercedes-Benz vehicles, as well as boxes of Louis Vuitton items, fine art, and high-end furniture.
The Gibraltar Government on Thursday released the Iranian supertanker Grace 1, which was seized on July 4 on suspicion it was shipping 2.1m barrels of crude oil to Syria in breach of EU sanctions.
Diplomatic tensions between the UK and Russia deepened amid claims that Moscow was blocking investigators from reaching the site of a chemical weapons attack in Syria. The UK said it was “essential” the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was granted “unfettered access” to Douma.
Bombs have fallen. Damascus has been beaten again. The United States, United Kingdom and France coalition launched airstrikes against Syrian targets as Donald Trump sought to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected chemical attack last weekend near Damascus that killed more than 40 people.
Britain said on Sunday Russia bore responsibility by proxy for civilian deaths in Syria last week caused by a poison gas attack that Washington says was carried out by the Moscow-backed government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. At least 70 people died in what the United States says was a chemical weapons attack in rebel-held Syria.
MI6 Director Alex Younger said on Thursday that the unprecedented terrorist threat his country is going through would not abate until the end of the civil war in Syria. Ha added that 12 plots to commit an attack have been dismantled since June 2013 and warned that the efficiently murderous Islamic state continues to plan attacks from Syria, despite recent military setbacks.
The UN Security Council on Friday (Nov 20) authorized countries to take all necessary measures to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group in a resolution that won unanimous backing a week after the Paris attacks.
The United States is willing to work with Iran and Russia to try to end the Syrian conflict, US President Barack Obama on Monday but insisted there could not be a return to the status quo under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Saudi Arabia's Gulf Arab allies and Egypt have applauded its decision to reject a UN Security Council seat in protest at the world body's failure to act on Syria, whose leader is backed by Russia and Shi'ite Iran.