Showing 1 - 10 of 24
What would happen if Khamenei falls?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/01/2026
» The demonstrations began again in Iran last week, only two years after the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement convulsed the country for months. However, the current protests are potentially much broader than that episode because they are driven by the collapse in Iran's currency, the rial (now 1,420,000 to the US dollar), and the explosive rise in the cost of living.
Gaza ceasefire under pressure from all sides
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/01/2025
» In the 80 hours between Wednesday, Jan 15, when the Gaza ceasefire agreement was announced, and Sunday, Jan 19, when it went into effect, Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip killed 123 Palestinians, including dozens of women and children. The Israel Defence Force (IDF) said it had tried to avoid civilian casualties, but it had to kill the "terrorists" of Hamas wherever they were.
Has Iran finally reached the end of the line?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 02/01/2025
» Six months ago, at the end of Iran's presidential election, I finished an article by speculating that the long-lived theocratic dictatorship in Iran may be a lot closer to its end than its beginning: "If you can plausibly say "This cannot go on forever", you are also saying "Some day this will come to an end'."
Syria receives another chance with Assad gone
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/12/2024
» Take a moment, first, to celebrate the fall of a regime of surpassing evil even by the demanding standards of the Middle East. Father and son, the Assad regime oppressed and abused the Syrian people for 53 years, and now it is gone in a week. Even the American-backed puppet regime in Afghanistan did not fall that fast.
Syria: It's those jihadis on the march again
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/12/2024
» One week in, the ceasefire in Lebanon seems to be holding, but everything is connected: only three days later, the civil war in Syria started up again after a de facto four-year truce.
With Israel and Iran it's tit for tat for tit for tat...
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 31/10/2024
» It's more like a courtship ritual between exotic birds than a 21st-century war. First the Israelis assassinate Revolutionary Guard generals in an Iranian embassy on foreign soil. Tag. You're it.
Netanyahu and Biden: decisions, decisions
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 17/10/2024
» Two weeks ago Iran, in response to Israel's assassinations of the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas, its most important allies in the Arab world, fired 181 ballistic missiles at Israel. A big and prompt Israeli counterattack was expected, but at the time of writing it has still not happened. Why not?
What now after Israel's invasion of Lebanon?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/10/2024
» Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, has launched his invasion of Lebanon. As usual in the opening stages of Israeli incursions into that fragile country, the signs and portents look good for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
Will he? Won't he? What will Netanyahu do?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/10/2024
» Will Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, really launch a full-scale war against Lebanon-based Hezbollah when Israel is still fighting Hamas in Gaza? Of course he will.
Exploding pagers: What was the point?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 20/09/2024
» The exploding pagers that killed at least 12 people and injured 2,800 others in Lebanon and some adjacent places on Tuesday were mostly just a new wrinkle on the exploding cellphones that Israel has used to assassinate its opponents in the past, but there was one major innovation.