Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Zaki Kaf Al-Ghazal
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Isn’t it time to revoke Asma Al-Assad’s British citizenship?
Events in Syria tend to revolve around the crimes committed by President Bashar Al-Assad and his regime. He has been in the news more than usual recently due to the severe economic downturn his country has faced over the past few months; it’s hardly surprising after years of corruption by…
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The failure of the Syrian economy goes beyond the imminent Caesar Act
The Syrian economy is in freefall. At the beginning of the uprising in March 2011, $1 was equivalent to approximately 50 Syrian Pounds. Today, it is equivalent to around 3,000 Syrian Pounds, a 600-fold increase over the past nine years. A state employee in Syria was paid what was equivalent…
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Is Putin behind the split in Syria’s Assad family?
It is well understood that the Assad regime controls all aspects of Syrian life and society as dictatorships tend to do. The tentacles of the regime reach into the economy, the way it operates and who profits. The Assad regime operates like a family and those at the very top…
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The regime claims that Syria has immunity against the coronavirus
As Syria enters the 10th year of the conflict in the country, the situation looks bleak. Idlib is on the verge of falling to the regime, stopped only by a tenuous ceasefire, while in some countries the re-legitimisation of the Assad regime is slowly underway. In addition to the death,…
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The world fiddles while Idlib burns
As the world looks on, the horrors of Idlib are clear for all to see. The last bastion of resistance to the Assad regime, Idlib teeters on the brink. Almost nine years on, and heading into the tenth year of the uprising against the brutal dictator, the international community has…
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Russia’s role in Syria is sinister; it’s an occupier with an iron grip
As we enter a new year and a new decade, the Syrian conflict rages on, well into its ninth year. The estimated death toll is touching one million, with over ten million others displaced both internally and externally, from a pre-war population of around 23 million in 2011. The role…
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Whilst Brexit dominates the election campaign, Syria moves into the shadows
General elections are intriguing times in British politics. Parties make headlines with spending commitments, their leaders are constantly on the airwaves hammering home their message and the public are treated to a never ending array of sound bites about various policies. “Get Brexit done” and “For the many not the…
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Is a new constitution a priority while barrel bombs are still dropped on Syria?
Constitutions are an interesting legal phenomenon. The Oxford Dictionary defines a constitution as “a body of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organisation is acknowledged to be governed”. They tend to be codified in a governing document, although some are unwritten. Every state has…
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Six years after the chemical attack in Ghouta, have we learnt its lessons?
In the aftermath of the August 2013 chemical weapons attack in Ghouta, Syria, the then British Prime Minister David Cameron said, “Our inaction in Syria shows we have not learnt the lessons of the Holocaust [and] the lessons of not standing by.” The words chosen by Cameron and others were…
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Assad’s war crimes include the systematic targeting of hospitals, yet go unpunished
Although many reports touch on the political and humanitarian situation in Syria, little has been said about the medical situation in the war-torn country, and the plight of its doctors who remain there. The conflict has raged for eight years with no end in sight. The uprising against Bashar Al-Assad…
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The Syrian regime’s slogan ‘Assad or we burn the country’ must not become reality
The bombardment of Idlib by Syrian regime forces over the past few weeks has been relentless; the long anticipated offensive on the city in northern Syria has arrived with devastating results. A massacre of gargantuan proportions awaits as air strikes hit homes, schools and hospitals. More than 120 civilians in…
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Eight years on, we must say sorry to Syria
This week is the eighth anniversary of the conflict in Syria. The death toll is well over half a million and over half the population has been internally or externally displaced as of last year. The conflict has transformed countless lives forever, and in a world where it is almost…