On September 8, US and Turkish armoured vehicles and troops began joint land and air patrols along the Syrian side of a section of that country's border with Turkey.

Iran has trumped Trump by routing its oil tanker along the northern shore of the Mediterranean, pausing at ports in Greece and Turkey, then anchoring off Syria's Tartus.

Damascus' International Fair and the liberation of northern Hama and southern Idlib from Al Qaeda-affiliated insurgents have lifted morale in the Syrian capital and elsewhere in the country.

Israel's expansion of its campaign of air strikes on Iranian personnel and Iran-linked fighters from Syria to Iraq has created tension between Iraqi militias and the government, and could compromise Baghdad's already tricky relationship with the US.

The politico-military advantage in the stalemated war in Yemen has shifted recently in favour of the Houthi rebels, who are now reinforcing their political position ahead of prospective peace talks by calling on Iran for support.

Donald Trump is neither an armchair warrior, nor a competent battlefield commander-in-chief. Trump dodged military service in the Vietnam war just as his grandfather Friedrich Trump did when he fled Bavaria's army for New York at the end of the 19th century.

Last weekend's death toll in the war of attrition in Syria's Idlib province was lower than the 31 fatalities in US mass shootings in Ohio and Texas.

Turkey and Lebanon have been deporting Syrian refugees to their home country despite pressure from mainly Western humanitarian agencies, which argue the situation in Syria remains unstable, putting returnees’ lives at risk.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's statement that Britain must look after its own shipping in the Gulf is both outrageous and amazing.  His words are outrageous because the US put British shipping in the Gulf at risk by asking Britain to seize Grace 1, a super-tanker with a