Photo source: Al Jazeera By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Jordan has recently intensified its warnings against Iranian militias along its northern frontier, accusing Tehran of facilitating drug trafficking through drones and other methods. Officials in Amman argue that Iranian‑affiliated groups have expanded their influence in southern Syria, shifting the balance of power in the area. Al Jazeera reported that Jordanian authorities see narcotics smuggling as not only a criminal enterprise but also a geopolitical weapon, with militias using the trade to fund operations. These warnings are not new. Since Tehran intervened in the Syrian war in 2014 to support President Bashar al‑Assad, Jordan has been wary of being drawn into the conflict. By late 2021, drug smuggling had escalated and become increasingly violent. In January 2022, a Jordanian army officer was killed and three personnel injured when smugglers opened fire on an outpost along the border, according to Reuters. The ...

  Photo source: Al Mayadeen By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront In July 2022, China Daily reported that US military tankers had carried thousands of litres of crude oil from Syria’s north‑eastern province of Hasakah into the semi‑autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. The Chinese paper accused Washington of ‘bandit behaviour’, claiming that ‘stealing oil is their profession’. China’s foreign ministry issued a statement urging the United States to respect Syria’s sovereignty, lift unilateral sanctions, and ‘stop plundering Syria’s national resources’. Syria’s official news agency SANA echoed these accusations. In August 2022, it reported that 144 tankers laden with Syrian oil crossed into Iraq via the al‑Mahmoudiya border, only days after another convoy of 60 vehicles passed through the al‑Waleed crossing. SANA described these transfers as violations of international law, portraying US forces as occupiers. The Pentagon, however, has consistently maintained that its deploym...

  Photo source: The New Arab By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Turkey has retained a military presence in northern Syria, after it launched its first border operation in August 2016, through Operation Euphrates Shield to fight Islamic State near Turkey’s border, and to also prevent Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from advancing further westward.   Turkey completed Euphrates Shield after capturing the city of Al-Bab from Islamic State in March 2017. Turkish allied militia and the Turkish army control these regions. Turkey has launched a total of four of its military operations since 2016. All its major ground operations needed to be carefully deconflicted with Moscow. The last one, in 2019, also required coordination with a chaotic Trump White House. While Trump first gave the green light, he later changed his tune and threatened Turkey with heavy sanctions. Such discord on the American front made Turkish-Russian coordination even more essential for Ankara. Ankara has even ...

  Photo source: Daily Sabah By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront In January 2022, the Russian Defence Ministry announced that its air force had begun joint patrols with Syrian military pilots along Syria’s borders. As reported by Al Arabiya News, the patrols involved fighter jets, fighter‑bombers and airborne early warning aircraft, flying routes from the Golan Heights through southern Syria and then along the Euphrates River up to the north. Moscow presented these patrols as demonstrations of solidarity with the Assad regime and as measures to help Damascus pre‑emptively counter threats. They also served Russia’s longer‑term goal of assisting Assad in regaining control over territory still held by opposition groups. Adam Lammon, writing for the Centre for the National Interest, argued that the patrols were designed to enhance the Syrian military’s independent capabilities, asserting sovereignty while reducing Russia’s operational burden. Paul Iddon in Forbes offered a more nuanc...

  Photo source: The New Arab By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront In July 2021, Syrian government forces re-entered Daraa, a city indelibly linked to the origins of the uprising that began in March 2011. It was here that residents toppled a statue of Hafez al-Assad —a moment that came to symbolise popular defiance against an entrenched regime. As Martin Chulov of The Guardian observed, Daraa has always carried deep symbolic weight: it ignited the revolt, and its later subjugation was intended to demonstrate the regime’s capacity to extinguish dissent. It also underscored Russia’s ambition to cast itself as Syria’s guarantor of order. The roots of the 2021 crisis lay in the 2018 ‘reconciliation’ agreement brokered by Russia following a major southern offensive. That deal partitioned Daraa into zones: the east under full regime authority, and the west—particularly Daraa al-Balad—under local committees composed of former rebels and civilians. Writing for the Carnegie Middle East ...

Photo source: Washington Post By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront In September 2018, Russia and Turkey reached what became known as the Sochi Agreement, a deal that temporarily prevented a full‑scale assault on Idlib province, home to nearly three million people. As Al Jazeera reported, Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the creation of a demilitarised buffer zone, 15–20 kilometres deep, to be established by 15 October 2018, with rebel fighters expected to withdraw heavy weapons while Russian and Turkish patrols, supported by drones, would monitor the area. The Arab Center Washington DC, in analysis by Joe Macaron, stressed that the deal was always fragile, testing Russian–Turkish relations and hinging on the willingness of radical factions to comply. The Guardian’s Martin Chulov added that the agreement was seen by many Syrians as a temporary reprieve rather than a durable peace. On the ground, the truce offered temporary relief. Farmers began buying ...

Photo Source: Google Images By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Eastern Ghouta, once a fertile agricultural belt on the outskirts of Damascus, became a symbol of devastation during the Syrian civil war. In February 2018, the enclave was described as ‘Syria’s newest graveyard’ after one of the deadliest bombardments in years. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least ninety‑eight people were killed in a single day, marking the deadliest attack in Syria’s three‑year war history at that time. Over five days, the death toll rose to 229, including fifty‑eight children and forty‑three women, underscoring the indiscriminate nature of the assault, as reported by The Guardian and BBC News. The United Nations estimated that around 400,000 civilians were trapped in Eastern Ghouta, half of them children, with UNICEF and Save the Children warning of acute malnutrition and psychological trauma among the youngest. The enclave had been under siege since 2013, with...

By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront SYRIA’S WAR HAS BEEN ONE OF the most destructive conflicts of the twenty-first century. By 2013, the Assad regime was already regaining ground in Latakia against rebels, but it was not until September 2015 that Russia formally launched its air campaign in Syria. As BBC News reported, Moscow’s intervention marked a turning point, enabling Assad’s forces to recapture rebel-held areas with Russian air power and military support. The Syrian army, supported by Hezbollah and Iranian-backed militias, pushed northwards towards the Turkish border, raising tensions with Ankara. As Reuters reported, the Russian Foreign Ministry in February 2016 insisted it had “not received convincing evidence of civilian deaths” from its strikes. Humanitarian organisations, monitoring groups, and journalists, however, documented numerous incidents involving civilian casualties. Al Jazeera journalist Ibrahim al-Omar was killed in July 2016 while reporting in Idlib Provinc...