Comment: Is IS a homogenous group with a unified leadership, or merely a label invoked by violent criminal gangs? Laith Saud asks world leaders to consider their next moves carefully.
Comment: Forging a sense of national unity in the aftermath of the US invasion was made all the more difficult by Chalabi's sectarianism, writes Laith Saud.
Comment: World powers are preparing to break up the war-ravaged nation into feuding ethnic mini-states, writes Laith Saud. But who will ask Syrians what they want for their future?
Comment: The world has ignored the ethnic-cleansing of the Ottoman-Russian War of 1878, allowing it to play out again over a century later in Syria and Iraq [AFP]
Comment: The regional power has developed an effective global relations campaign that has included western academics, DC lobbyists and powerful international actors under a counter-terrorism banner, writes Laith Saud.