India and Pakistan in December: India’s prime minister made a surprise stop Friday in Pakistan to meet his counterpart in a richly symbolic gesture likely to add momentum to a tentative reconciliation process between the nuclear-armed neighbors. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif embraced India’s Narendra Modi at the airport in the eastern city of Lahore. They … Continue reading That’s not going to go over well

Today in New York, a thin-skinned, narcissistic autocrat with dangerously violent tendencies tried to burnish his dubious foreign policy credentials by meeting with a high-profile foreign political leader. Oh, and Donald Trump was there too: Egypt's president has been told the US would be a "loyal friend" to Egypt if Donald Trump is elected president, … Continue reading Like looking in a mirror

There's a strong possibility that the Syrian ceasefire, which would have passed the magic one week trial period as of tomorrow, is now defunct. At least it's defunct according to the Syrian military, which resumed barrel bombing Aleppo yesterday and outright said the ceasefire is over today. But as this was a US-Russia agreement negotiated … Continue reading Fun while it lasted?

Russia and the U.S. have formally extended everybody else's ceasefire in Syria for another 48 hours, but all is already not well if you're a fan of Middle East peace: The United Nations has urged Syria's government to "immediately" allow humanitarian aid into the country, after a fragile ceasefire was extended for 48 hours by … Continue reading Still no aid to eastern Aleppo

  Syria and Ukraine might be enjoying new, if probably temporary, ceasefires, but as for Libya... Libyan forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar said on Monday they had tightened their control over four major oil ports, casting a Western-backed project to unite Libya and revive oil exports into deep uncertainty. Haftar's forces met little … Continue reading Well, it’s not raining everywhere

We're now two days into the Syrian ceasefire, and despite a few reports of violations, overall the deal seems to be holding together. However, the ceasefire wasn't the goal so much as the means to achieve the goal, which is the alleviation of Syrian suffering. And in that regard there already appear to be some … Continue reading It’s raining ceasefires

I hope you'll forgive the light posting the past couple of days. I'm back at it, but "back at it" has meant writing for LobeLog instead of here. For example, as you know, the annual Hajj took place over the weekend. This year, contrary to most years, there weren't any Iranians making the pilgrimage (at … Continue reading The Saudi-Iran feud gets more ridiculous