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Friday, August 21, 2026
[Salon] Iraq and Syria: a cautious courtship - ArabDigest.org. Guest Post
Iraq and Syria: a cautious courtship
Summary: Iraq and Syria have long distrusted one another but economic necessities and the Iran war are leading to a warming in relations.
We thank Winthrop Rodgers for today’s newsletter. A journalist and analyst who spent several years in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, he focuses on politics, human rights and economics and is an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House. @wrodgers2
Iraq and Syria have had difficult relations for decades, first as estranged Ba’athists and then in the chaos of post-Saddam Iraq and the Syrian civil war. But new governments in both Baghdad and Damascus could provide an opportunity for a reset and revaluation of what positive ties between the two neighbours can mean for each other and the wider region. Supported by the US and based on new infrastructure that will embed a durable economic relationship, it is possible that Iraq and Syria are on the verge of a transitional era.
Since the fall of the Assad regime in 2024, Iraq and Syria have approached their early engagement with caution — and for good reason. Their recent history has given each side great reason to distrust one another.
For Iraq, the new Syrian leadership, which is made up largely of former jihadis and Sunni Islamists, was extremely suspect. In fact, Syrian Transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa spent five years in US military and Iraqi prisons under his old nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, during his time as a member of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Hardly the kind of figure Iraqi leaders would want on their doorstep.
For the new Syrian government, Baghdad’s cold reaction to the victory over Assad - in contrast to the enthusiastic welcome it received in other regional capitals - underlined the trust deficit. Iraq’s Shia leadership’s close ties to Iran are a major concern for Damascus, as is the power of Iraq’s resistance militias which fought on the side of Assad during the civil war.
Syrian Security forces thwart an attempt to smuggle a shipment of "advanced weapons" and missiles across the Iraqi border, intended for Hezbollah, 16 July 2026
Still, from this mutually distrustful beginning, green shoots of cooperation have begun to emerge. Two initiatives stand out. The first and immediately most impactful and important relates to oil exports. When the Strait of Hormuz shut down as a result of the US/Israeli-Iran War, Iraq lost its main route for exporting crude. Planners in Baghdad always knew that over reliance on a single export route was a risk, but they saw the total closure of Horumz as a remote enough possibility not to do anything to diversify their options. The war forced a reckoning.
Quickly, Iraqi and Syrian officials brokered a temporary deal to truck oil across the border into Syria, where it could be exported from the Mediterranean port of Baniyas. This led to further discussions regarding the future of the long defunct Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline between the two countries. On July 17, during Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s visit to Washington the two sides signed a deal for the US oil major Chevron to build a new pipeline to export Iraqi crude directly from the Kirkuk network to Baniyas. It is expected to take four years and cost US$15 billion to build. The new pipeline is viewed as a major achievement by both governments.
The second initiative relates to the route of the planned Iraq Development Road Project. Though it is not currently expected to travel directly through Syria, it will cross from Iraq into Türkiye near the tripoint between the three countries. As a result, the US$17 billion road and rail route between Europe and the Gulf will act as a trunk off of which trade can flow down many branches, including into northeastern Syria. This major piece of geopolitical infrastructure will further bind the region, although it will take time to build.
For now, the developing political relationship between Iraq and Syria is being midwifed by some of Iraq’s key powerbrokers, who have become increasingly visible in Damascus in recent weeks. First to arrive was Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, who was warmly welcomed on 3 August. Barzani is a fixture of regional politics able to carry messages and feel out relationships with lower levels of risk than the heads of government in Baghdad and Damascus.
More notably, the head of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council Faiq Zaidan visited Damascus on 13 August. Zaidan, who exerts considerable influence behind the scenes, is often referred to as the most powerful man in Iraq. His engagement with the Syrian leadership is a strong indicator of Baghdad’s interest in exploring closer relations with Damascus.
The US has also strongly supported this détente. US diplomat Tom Barrrack, who oversees a sprawling regional portfolio, has explicitly linked the countries. “Iraq, Syria, and Turkey remain the strategic fulcrum upon which any enduring Middle East stability must pivot,” he said in June. This has gone beyond rhetoric, with US political and business involvement key to brokering the new Iraq-Syria pipeline.
While Washington’s presence in these early stages is welcome and useful, it will ultimately be up to Iraqi and Syrian leaders — across (presumably) multiple changes of government — for this to become a fruitful and positive relationship in the face of historical enmity and suspicion. For the moment, this development is fragile, transactional, and personalised rather than institutional. It will take time and positive experience for better relations to develop between Iraq and Syria beyond the blue sky thinking of a Tom Barrack, reactive responses to a crisis or the promise of future benefits.
The US/Israel-Iran War and its ultimate impact on developments poses its own complications and Iranian influence over Iraq could prove to be a poison pill for the Syrians. Moreover, domestic developments in either Iraq or Syria may precipitate crises that undermine the best of intentions. Issues like that of the remaining Iraqi nationals left over in Syria from the war against Islamic State (ISIS) could prove thorny, for example.
Nevertheless, the strategy of introducing greater economic interconnectivity in the region via durable infrastructure seems a practical and durable approach. Once the Baniyas pipeline becomes operational, it will be difficult for Baghdad to live without it, especially if disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz persist. Once goods begin flowing along the Development Road, it will be hard to imagine economic life without it. The subtle economic, political and logistical ties that begin to grow will begin to exert their own gravity, reducing that of past difficulties. There is a long road to get to that point, but optimists are beginning to see concrete reasons on which to base their hopes.
Thursday, August 20, 2026
Wednesday, August 19, 2026
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Monday, August 17, 2026
[Salon] $1.1 MILLION AN HOUR!!—Trump’s Personal Profit in 2025 - Guest Post
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/08/17/1-1-million-an-hour-trumps-personal-profit-in-2025/
$1.1 MILLION AN HOUR!!—Trump’s Personal Profit in 2025
Ralph Nader 8/17/26
To House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer—Your responses on July 1, 2026 on the reporting of the $2.2 billion profit personally reaped by President Donald Trump, while allegedly a public servant in 2025, was not specific enough.
Jeffries wrote on his social media account: “Donald Trump made more than $2 billion during his first year as President. Republicans are enriching themselves while making your life more expensive. We must crush the culture of corruption.”
Schumer wrote on his: “$2.2 BILLION for the Trump family. Higher costs for the American people.”
You should have described his huge loot as $1.1 million an hour. That’s right, $1.1 million an hour based on a 40-hour work week over one year. (And remember, Trump spends a lot of his time on his vengeance missions, his golf game, and napping—so a 40-hour work week is a generous estimate.)
You should have then compared that enormous sum per hour with the Trump/GOP supported federal minimum wage, frozen at $7.25 per hour. This would have given you the perfect occasion to highlight the case for a much higher federal minimum wage, helping tens of millions of American workers.
You also omitted his unlawful agreement with the IRS to give him a free ride on tax abuses.
Such profiteering from his public office at $1.1 million an hour is staggering, especially when you detail where it came from. This would have resonated with a huge portion of the voting public, including Republicans. Instead, Democrats lost the opportunity to make that stunningly understandable communication. But it is not too late to revive and make more concrete his boastful misuse of the office of the presidency. You can compare it with past presidents’ sense of self restraint. You can ask for widespread feedback from the American people and make it part of his widely discernible profiteering persona of greed and lawless power.
One further response to this mountain of greed by Donald Trump should be joint shadow hearings between the House and Senate Democrats during this August recess. This would bring this appalling engagement by Trump in his various investment arrangements to a wider audience and highlight recommendations of reforms to prevent such massive and dubious self-enrichment by a President of the United States. There will be many competent legal and other experts to testify at your hearings, which no doubt will reveal more information and reach a large audience during the August recess.
These hearings would provide the Capitol press corps with much needed information to fulfill their professional responsibility to provide the people with their right to know the fuller details of what has yet not been reported.
Another way to put it is, you don’t make $1.1 million an hour by pushing a button. There is a lot of personal hidden back-and-forths by many people and many conflicts of interest to make that rich haul a reality.
Contact your Democratic members of Congress and demand shadow hearings. Ask for their written response. Do your part to help make it happen. The Congressional Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
[Salon] Israel beyond its borders: the Cyprus Question - ArabDigest.org Guest Post
Israel beyond its borders: the Cyprus Question
Summary: Israel is heading to the polls on October 27 and as the campaign heats up a powerful Israeli politician is chasing votes in Cyprus.
We thank Nour Halabi for today’s newsletter. Nour is a Lebanese political scientist and journalist whose work focuses on Middle East politics with a particular interest in identity politics and sectarianism.
In early August in Rome, Israeli and Lebanese officials sat down for a seventh round of US-mediated talks, with Israel refusing to withdraw from South Lebanon. Its forces continued striking villages in the south mid-negotiation and continued striking Gaza in parallel.
None of this is surprising. However, what is quite curious is a battle being fought several hundred kilometres from either front: a billboard campaign near Larnaca airport in Cyprus. The Yashar party led by Gadi Eisenkot a former IDF chief of staff and author of the Dahiya Doctrine (which calls for massive and disproportionate use of force and the deliberate targeting of civilians) launched the campaign in July. Eisenkot has emerged in recent polls as the strongest challenger to Netanyahu. His billboards have become the island’s most unlikely political flashpoint with opposition politicians demanding to know why they were allowed.
A promotional billboard campaign for Israeli politician Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar! party was launched in Cyprus to target Israeli citizens on the island ahead of the 27 October legislative elections.
But the billboards are just the tip of the iceberg. The country has spent years gradually absorbing a wave of Israeli capital, real estate and diaspora presence that has reshaped its coastal cities.
Behind the billboards there lies a story: decades of Israeli capital, real estate and strategic ties outstripping Cyprus’s ability to effectively regulate their impact.
Israeli presence in Cyprus well precedes the current election cycle. The exact resident population is difficult to establish, but estimates in recent years have put the Israeli community at around 15,000 people.
It is important to note that this should not be reduced to the idea of an Israeli “takeover.” Cyprus has spent years constructing an economic model intended to attract foreign money. Tourism, real estate, favourable tax structures, business relocation and investment-based residency have all formed part of that model. With Tel Aviv just an hour away by plane it is unsurprising that Israeli investment in Cyprus has shown significant growth as has the population of the expat community.
The Eisenkot billboards have become a lightning rod for Cypriot fears over Israel’s intentions. The anxiety is exacerbated by two different regulatory problems in attempting to manage the issue.
Independent Cypriot MEP Fidias Panayiotou demanded legislation prohibiting third-country election campaigns, while Cyprus’s Interior Ministry said it had no legal framework under its jurisdiction with which to regulate the political content of billboards. The island’s advertising self-regulatory body also reiterated there was no specific framework governing what could appear on commercial billboards. No previous case of a foreign party openly campaigning in Cyprus has been publicly identified.
So, regarding foreign political advertising, the gap exposed by the campaign is unusually striking. Cyprus regulates elections conducted in Cyprus. Cyprus never legislated against billboarding on behalf of a foreign politician because it never occurred to anyone that it would need to. And this is less an oversight than a description of how this kind of influence tends to work: it arrives ahead of the law.
Second, when it comes to property, the law is more explicit. Non-EU nationals face restrictions regarding acquiring Cypriot real estate. For example, current rules permit a plot of up to 4,000 square metres for an owner-occupied dwelling or up to two specified property units. Cyprus also offers permanent residency to qualifying non-EU investors, including through property investment of at least €300,000.
Nonetheless, in February, Cypriot MPs and government officials themselves acknowledged that the legislation governing foreign acquisitions is outdated and riddled with loopholes. A report cited in parliament found that non-EU nationals accounted for more than a quarter of recorded property sales in 2024. Much of the real estate is being purchased by Israelis.
Thus, on the one hand, there is a lack of rules, and on the other, there are existing rules that policymakers admit are flawed. Both raise the same broader question: how capable is Cyprus of regulating an external presence once that presence has become economically embedded and valuable?
There is also another layer to this relationship that makes the billboards impossible to treat as an isolated event.
Cyprus and Israel have spent the past decade deepening their security relationship. Cyprus has acquired Israel’s Barak MX air-defence system as part of a wider effort to replace ageing Russian equipment. Greece, Cyprus and Israel signed a trilateral work plan at the end of 2025 to deepen military cooperation during 2026, building on years of expanding defence ties. Additionally, plans announced in 2025 envisioned an approximately 200-kilometre pipeline carrying Israeli gas from the Karish field directly to Cyprus.
In sum, this bilateral relationship has become economically and strategically valuable to Cyprus and to Israel. Thus the billboards have appeared inside a political environment that is already transformed by years of accumulating ties.
Months prior to the appearance of the Eisenkot billboards, Oren Anolik, Israel’s ambassador to Cyprus, warned against rhetoric presenting Israeli residents and investment as threatening. He argued that portraying Israeli economic activity as a “takeover” or unchecked influence risks reinforcing historical stereotypes about Jewish economic power. Israeli families and professionals in Cyprus, he argued, can be understood as part of a broader process of economic and social integration.
Indeed, it is worth being precise about what is actually being examined here. Criticising a state’s behaviour is not the same as casting suspicion on a nationality. Pointing to concentrations of foreign capital does not imply that every foreign homeowner is a political actor. And analysing defence agreements is not the same as treating Jewish communal life as an arm of the Israeli state.
Clearly, an Israeli family moving to Cyprus is not the Israeli state. But recognising this distinction does not mean that the broader political and economic implications of Israeli migration and investment in Cyprus cease to be relevant.
For the island, the billboards expose a difficult question: can it regulate Israeli political activity on its soil when its economy has spent years being built around Israeli tourism, capital and residency?
Israeli power is generally discussed in the Arab world through its most violent manifestations and those realities remain fundamental. Nothing happening in Cyprus is remotely equivalent to the genocide and occupation in Palestine, the scorched earth war in Lebanon and the IDF occupation of a swathe of land in the south of Syria. However, for the wider region, Cyprus showcases a different and quietly dangerous form of regional reach. Power is still geopolitical even when it doesn’t arrive through arms and military occupation.
Consequently, if a politician trying to govern one country can look at the road outside another country’s airport and see that as part of his natural electoral terrain, it is clear that something has already changed in the relationship between capital, mobility, and most importantly, sovereignty.
Archaeo - Histories on X: "A colorized photograph (restored) showing a banquet scene in Shenyang (Manchuria), China, in March 1946, featuring Soviet Red Army officers alongside local residents and women. The Soviet occupation of Manchuria began in August 1945, when the Soviet Union launched a massive" / X
Sunday, August 16, 2026
Spain’s defiance challenges the western consensus — Strategic Culture
Spain’s defiance challenges the western consensus — Strategic Culture
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2026/08/16/spain-defiance-challenges-western-consensus/
8/16/26
"Whether one agrees with Sánchez’s policies or not, his government has shown that political independence has not yet disappeared from Europe.
Spain’s defiance challenges the western consensus."
The latest assault on Spain – using impoverished human beings condemned to unimaginable suffering as political cannon fodder – is yet another illustration of the ignoble arsenal employed by imperial power, and by the West more broadly, to impose its geopolitical interests.
Is anyone seriously expected to believe that, at the flick of an invisible switch somewhere in Morocco – or perhaps in Tel Aviv or Washington – tens of thousands of Moroccans and other African migrants simultaneously decided to storm the Spanish enclave of Ceuta before dispersing across Spain?
Who organised such an operation? Who coordinated it? Who stood behind it?
The Canaanite woman and welcoming foreigners - OSV News
The Canaanite woman and
welcoming foreigners - OSV News
Comment from OSV News:
This Sunday, one thing becomes clear: God really doesn't check passports or papers.
That is one of the messages of this Sunday's scripture, and it couldn't be more timely or provocative. In our polarized world -- a world divided by nationalities and religions, raging at each other with drones and missile strikes, seeking to expel foreigners and build walls -- these readings offer another way. Here is a way of mercy and acceptance and a love that knows no borders.
An eye-opening lesson comes in Matthew's Gospel, which recounts how Jesus meets a Canaanite woman who pleads for pity because her daughter is being tormented by a demon. Pay close attention to the first reaction to this woman. It doesn't come from Jesus. The blowback comes from the disciples.
Saturday, August 15, 2026
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