Author: M Barbu

The Lebanese authorities’ measures against Palestinians again highlight the discrimination Palestinians have long been facing in this Arab country. “Palestinians in Lebanon,” according to a 2017 report by the Associated Press, “suffer discrimination in nearly every aspect of daily life…” Lebanese law restricts Palestinians’ ability to work in several professions, including law, medicine and engineering, and bars them from receiving social security benefits. In 2001, the Lebanese parliament also passed a law prohibiting Palestinians from owning property.

As the American-sponsored “Peace to Prosperity” workshop in Bahrain came to a close at the end of June, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas continued his lobbying efforts to denounce the U.S. peace plan and the Manama summit. During a press conference held with his Chilean counterpart in Ramallah, the octogenarian leader reiterated the importance of a political solution prior to the implementation of regional economic projects like those proposed in the White House’s plan. Abbas’ simultaneous emphasis on Palestinian national rights and bilateral relations with Chile in the context of the Manama conference was by no means a coincidence. With the increased influence of right-wing populism and evangelicalism, Abbas has seen the region’s historic commitment to the Palestinian cause wane. These internal changes, along with a pivot toward Washington, have, in turn, aided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in making further inroads on the South American continent.

Yet, while Iran shows no sign of scaling down its aggressive stance towards the US and its allies in the region, Europe continues to cling to the wreckage of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to give the nuclear deal its proper name, in the misguided belief that the deal remains the best means of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has been decimated by eight years of civil war. Defections, deaths, and a lack of funding have gutted its ranks while heavy losses of armored vehicles have significantly reduced the mechanized capabilities of what was once the sixth-largest armor fleet in the world.1 The inability of Damascus to fully deploy its official army led to the rise of paramilitary militias and an influx of pro-regime foreign fighters. Furthermore, the way in which the SAA units were deployed, by “task-organizing” divisions into reliably loyal units of approximately one brigade, led to the disintegration of brigade-division administrative ties.

Iran’s recent responses to U.S. pressure, including to the UK-led seizure of a Syria-bound Iranian oil tanker, have brought the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal to the brink of collapse.

By choosing to hold the protests under the banner of the “Three No’s,” the organizers of the “Great March of Return” have again proven that the weekly demonstrations are not about improving the living conditions of Palestinians or easing restrictions imposed on the Gaza Strip. Instead, the message the organizers are sending to the Palestinians and the rest of the world is: “We don’t recognize Israel’s right to exist and therefore we will never make negotiate or make peace with it.”

The withdrawal of UAE troops from the disastrous war in Yemen is forcing Saudi Arabia to shoulder more of its own burden.

Traditionally, Syria has not been a strategic priority for China. Nor is it today. However, this does not mean that Beijing has been indifferent to the wide-ranging adverse effects of Syria’s disastrous civil war or to the opportunities that its postwar rebuilding might present.