Middle East Zugzwang

... main obstacle was the paragraph about a full ceasefire. Russia believes that the resumption of the truce is pointless unless militants change their stance. Mother of all battles 2 That is what the militants call the battle to break the blockade of east Aleppo. It is worth recalling that in 1991 Saddam Hussein, then Iraqi President, called the conflict the “mother of all battles”, which the rest of the world knows as the Gulf War. Notwithstanding nearly all the UN Security Council resolutions on Syria emphasizing the need for a “political transition ...