AboutArticles by Michael Jansen

Too close to call

11 May 2023

Sunday’s presidential and parliamentary election could decide whether that vast country continues along the Ottoman path decreed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has been in charge since 2003 or reverts...

Syria ends long isolation, back in the Arab fold

07 May 2023

The US is clearly disturbed by the rapid pace of reconciliation following the March 10th China-mediated agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to reopen embassies closed since 2016. This has...

Rediscovering traditions

04 May 2023

Despite war and sanctions Heike Weber, a septuagenarian German woman, carries on with her mission to preserve the embroideries of Syria and Palestine. This effort preserves these countries’ cultural heritage...

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...

Michael Jansen

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