A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Friends Like These: Asad Regime Paper Cheers US On

The Syrian newspaper al-Watan is not a "state-owned " newspaper but is officially privately owned.  But its private owner is Rami Makhlouf, multi-billionaire, richest man in Syria, and not at all coincidentally the maternal first cousin of Bashar al-Asad. It is, so to speak, not state-owned, but privately owned by the family that owns (what's left of) the state. And it is robustly cheerleading the US and coalition airstrikes against ISIS, claiming Syria is more or less an ally.
"Washington and its Allies are in One Ditch (or Trench) with the Syrian Army Fighting Terrorism." And the subhead above even claims "Damascus reveals prior coordination and cooperation against ISIS and Nusra and the terrorists."

Truth as usual being the first casualty in war, and the Asad regime's tame media never having been trustworthy anyway, I wouldn't put much faith in the coordination claim. Though you never know. You can find the whole text here.

That was the Tuesday issue. And today's edition (full text here), continuing to back the bombing of ISIS and noting that Syria considers this policy the "Correct Direction":



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