Author of It Started in Damascus - How the Long Syrian Revolution Reshaped Our World (represented by @DHAbooks). Geopolitics & Diplomacy & Communications.
Joined September 2008
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Days before Assad fled Syria and his violent 54-year regime collapsed in December 2024, my book nearly fully written, I could not have imagined I would be there myself almost a year later, with my book, on the day of its release.
It Started in Damascus, in bookshops as of today.
ALT The book It Started in Damascus is shown, a hand holding it up under the arches of the Roman Temple of Jupiter and the minaret of the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus in the background.
Rime Allaf retweeted
I’ve gathered all my Syria videos (so far) in a single playlist. Next upload coming soon! 👇
youtube.com/playlist?list=PL…
Rime Allaf retweeted
The list includes recent field reports from Aleppo and Damascus, as well as interviews with the amazing @rallaf, @Karam__Shaar, @IamArwaDamon, @ibrahimhamidi, @FADELABDULGHANY, @AmalHanano and more.
I'm such a Star Trek TNG nerd that when @HurstPublishers featured me in their Newsletter the month my book (It Started in Damascus) was published, this is how I answered the Author Q&A question on what period I would visit if I could time travel.
I'm a heavy duty Trekkie of The Next Generation - the best Star Trek, the finest team, the most inspiring Captain, Jean-Luc Picard. Rest in peace, Sir Patrick Stewart, every character you ever played and read was marvelous, but you will always be our Captain.
There is much still to be processed about Syrians in Europe. Simple platitudes like "the war is over, let them return" miss the essence of lives spent adapting to and often adopting (the young in particular) different perspectives and aspirations. Looking forward to watching this.
nytimes.com/2026/10/23/movie…
NYC built a monument to Khalil Gibran and Little Syria. Why was there global uproar?
Lebanese officials were furious, claiming the city erased Gibran’s identity. Yet there was a time when Arab immigrants in the US thought ‘we were all Syrians’
Read all about it here: theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i…
Fake, AI-generated, posted by an account in Israel and spread widely by far-right agitators: the image of a French couple in their 80s, said to have been robbed of everything during the October 17 riots and left barefoot in their underwear in Paris.
Rime Allaf retweeted
▶️ #GrandeConfrontation – Pillages, violences, les politiques sont-ils responsables ?
« Ce qui me frappe dans nos débats, c'est qu'il y a de plus en plus une sorte d'antagonisme de visions du monde irréconciliables à l'égard de la République. »
Pierre-Henri Tavoillot – Philosophe et maître de conférences à Sorbonne Université
#LCI #GrandeConfrontation #17Octobre #Manifestations #Crise #Blocus #Pillages ⤵️
On n'est plus dans la manif ou la provocation, on est dans la casse. Des scènes pénibles, terribles, partout.
You mean armed and masked Israeli terrorists attacked European diplomats visiting the Palestinian village of Taybeh, near Ramallah.
Rime Allaf retweeted
President Trump’s envoy Jared Kushner says a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine could be completed if Ukraine surrendered territory Russia claims but has failed to capture.
theintellectualistofficial.s…
The Butcher of Bayda and Baniyas, Ali Kayali aka Mihraç Ural, who massacred hundreds of innocent children, women and men in an orgy of sectarian savagery, is finally in the custody of the Syrian government.
Waiting for Syria's official response to this new Israeli claim.
Netanyahu claims he spoke with Syrian President Ahmed Sharaa: "There was a very short, very sharp conversation, and the massacre stopped."
When Zelensky was elected Ukraine president in 2019, Putin had been in power for 20 years - as Yeltsin's PM in 1999, then as Russia president since 2000. He invaded Crimea in 2014 and attacked all of Ukraine in 2022.
So between these two, who should go?
No, it's Trump who turned on Zelensky.
“The block [on attacking refineries] is out. We’re done”
Volodymyr Zelensky has turned on Donald Trump, launching a personal attack on the US president and pledging to resume strikes on Russian oil refineries.
🔗 telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2…
And yet he claims it is endangered by simple Syrian farmers on their own lands in the Golan, so he kills their crops and steals their livelihood while shouting about all the threats from Turkey.
Israeli drones flying over Damascus today, among other illegal incursions all over southern Syria. Would anyone accept this the other way around?
Inviting Markov to comment on (or rather deny) Burnham's revelation that Russia interfered in Brexit referendum is like when media used to invite Bouthaina Shabaan to comment on (or rather deny) Assad and Russia's war crimes in Syria. Where is the newsworthiness in that?
"It's a direct lie... Either Prime Minister Burnham is lying, or the intelligence service of Great Britain."
Former Putin spokesperson Sergei Markov says that the PM's claim that Russia interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum is "absolutely a clear lie."
#Newsnight