AboutArticles by Michael Jansen

Sanctions on Syria have to be lifted soon

30 Apr 2023

Washington is just starting to understand that sanctions do not compel governments to do what the US wants. People who are harmed by sanctions are the poor and the middle...

Back to the best

27 Apr 2023

The direct road from Damascus to Aleppo is 300 kilometres long and passes largely through countryside and empty, battle-ravaged villages. This route was restored in 2019-20 after the Syrian army...

Syria’s return to the Arab fold is a welcome change

23 Apr 2023

For a change, there is some good news from this region. First, the process of Syria’s return to the Arab fold has reached the highest levels of government in Damascus...

Chess genius

20 Apr 2023

Eleven-year-old Syrian chess prodigy Hussein Besou is on the German team competing in the Mitropa tournament currently taking place at the Aurora Hotel on Losinj Island in Croatia. Born in...

Teixeira seems to be inspired by the Ukraine war

16 Apr 2023

Massachusetts Air National guardsman Jack Teixeira who has been accused of revealing US diplomatic and military secrets is no whistleblower. The 21-year-old airman first class is instead a young man...

Serious misconduct

13 Apr 2023

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been criticised by both Democrats and Republicans for arresting former US President Donald Trump and charging him with 34 felony counts of falsifying his...

China, surprise peacemaker in Saudi-Iran ties

09 Apr 2023

China stepped onto the world stage as a peacemaker with the March 10th agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to reopen embassies in each others’ capitals. This was followed by...

Breaking Records

06 Apr 2023

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf is the third politician of South Asian origin to head a government in the British Isles. The first was Leo Varadkar who served as Irish...

Netanyahu appears to thrive on creating tension

02 Apr 2023

In response to US President Joe Biden’s verbal call not to risk Israel’s democracy by overhauling its Supreme Court, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu rudely tweeted that Israel would take its...

Trump’s troubles

30 Mar 2023

Donald Trump is railing against multiple legal cases threatening to scupper or, at least, complicate his bid for a second term in the White House. During last Saturday’s rally drawing...

Michael Jansen

The author, a well-respected observer of Middle East affairs, has three books on the Arab-Israeli conflict.