Con Coughlin's Blog, page 10

Russia is now the undisputed master of the UN Security Council

Forget all the fuss that's being made in New York about the Iranians showing a more positive approach in their dealings with the West. The real story from this week's UN General Assembly is that Russia, not America, is now  the dominant power at the Security Council for the first time in the history of [...]

Iran needs to get over its hang-up with the H-word

So much for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's American charm offensive. In an attempt to persuade New York's powerful Jewish lobby that Iran posed no threat to Israel's security, he went out of his way in an interview with CNN to decry the mass killing of Jews by the Nazis during the Second World War. Mr [...]

Nairobi shopping mall attack: Kenya is paying the price for being our ally

The appalling events in Nairobi, where an al-Qaeda-linked terror cell has wreaked carnage in a shopping mall, is the price Kenya is paying for being a staunch ally of the West in waging war against Islamist extremism. Because of the unpopularity of the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Western governments are reluctant to dispatch [...]

Now Syria's rebels are fighting each other

I would strongly recommend that William Hague – and any other member of the Government who still believes it is a good idea to arm the Syrian rebels – takes a close look at today's article in the Wall Street Journal. It reports that Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda have now launched a campaign dubbed "expunging filth" [...]

We must take care not to turn Syria into another Libya

All those who still believe that the West should intervene militarily in Syria – and that includes David Cameron and William Hague – would be well-advised to take a good look at the UN's  report on Libya, which gives a grim assessment of the country's plight in the aftermath of the overthrow of Colonel Muammar [...]

John Kerry on Syria sounds the same as George W. Bush on Iraq

I am sure I'm not the only one who experienced a sense of déjà vu over the weekend when John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, issued a stark warning to the Assad regime of the consequences it would face if it did not comply fully with the decommissioning of its chemical weapons arsenal. After [...]

Putin shows Obama how to provide decisive leadership

The introduction of the New York Times's new star columnist, Vladimir V Putin,  this morning should provide Barack Obama with a few useful tips on how to make a persuasive argument to the American people about tackling the Syrian crisis. By contrast with Mr Obama's unfathomable televised address earlier this week, Mr Putin, whose day [...]

It's official: Barack Obama is now a lame duck president

If any lesson is to be drawn from Barack Obama's White House speech, it is that he has no interest in providing the kind of decisive leadership we have come to expect from American presidents. For anyone hoping for a clear explanation of where Obama stands on the Syria issue, last night's speech failed to [...]

Russia's plan to disarm Syria is a massive red herring

You can tell by the way the Obama administration is falling over itself to accept Moscow's plan to neutralise Syria's chemical weapons stockpile that it is doomed to failure. Having set his arbitrary red lines for military intervention in Syria's civil war – namely the use of banned weapons by the Assad regime – the [...]

The G20 summit is turning into a juvenile parlour game

Far from being a meeting of the world's most powerful leaders, the G20 summit in St Petersburg is taking on the appearance of a juvenile parlour game in which you have to guess which leaders are not talking to each other. Topping the list is Barack Obama, who is in a huff with Russian President [...]