Aron Lund

@aronlund

I write mostly about Syria and the Middle East. In English: The Century Foundation, The New Humanitarian, SIPRI. På svenska: Expressen, UNT, Eskilstuna-Kuriren.

aron@aronlund.com
tcf.org/experts/aron-l…
Joined December 2011
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  1. Pinned Tweet
    16 Dec 2019

    UN aid to Syrians in Idlib and the Kurdish-held northeast will end overnight if a key UN resolution expires. What does Russia want in return for not using its veto? Read my latest, for :

    1 reply 35 retweets 44 likes
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  2. Retweeted
    4 hours ago

    Two months ago, the published a massive study of the very networks of partners that Qassem Soleimani and the Qods Force spent decades building. If you are tired with the Twitter hot takes and need some depth and nuance, we have 217 pages of that for you.

    1:02
    Since the 1980s, Iran has developed networks of influence across the Middle East, including in and . Find out how these networks were created and how they are used by Tehran today in the latest…
    6 replies 184 retweets 260 likes
  3. 13 minutes ago

    "Oh, that guy was also in the car?" was probably not the send-off Abul-Mehdi al-Mohandes was hoping for, four decades after he blew up his first U.S. embassy.

    .: "I can only confirm that Gen. Soleimani is dead but if Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis is passed away as well, again less risk in the Middle East, more freedom for Iraqis, more opportunity for Iraqi people to stand up and get a independent, free and sovereign Iraq built" …
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  4. Retweeted
    2 hours ago

    As George Costanza once said, "it's not a lie if you believe it"

    3 replies 16 retweets 48 likes
  5. Retweeted
    10 hours ago

    Now, of all times, Trump considering pardon for Blackwater contractor convicted in massacre of 17 Iraqi civilians in Nisoor traffic circle in Baghdad 2007?

    Blackwater contractors killed 17 people unprovoked, including nine-year-old boy. They wounded another 20. All by shooting randomly into a crowded…
    2 replies 29 retweets 24 likes
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  6. 60 minutes ago

    Ayatollah Khamenei appears to be unaware of the U.S. commitment to de-escalation.

    6 likes
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  7. 1 hour ago

    But on the plus side, the U.S. remains committed to de-escalation.

    Discussed with the recent decision to take defensive action to eliminate Qassem Soleimani. Thankful that our allies recognize the continuing aggressive threats posed by the Iranian Quds Force. The U.S. remains committed to de-escalation.
    2 replies 1 retweet 10 likes
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  8. 1 hour ago

    Apparently there are heightened tensions in Iraq and the region.

    : Due to heightened tensions in Iraq and the region, we urge U.S. citizens to depart Iraq immediately. Due to Iranian-backed militia attacks at the U.S. Embassy compound, all consular operations are suspended.…
    1 reply 12 likes
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  9. Retweeted
    2 hours ago

    Soleimani’s replacement announced by Khamenei: Brigadier General Ismail Ghani, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, active in the Quds Force for years, including in fighting against ISIS in Syria.

    جانشین مشخص شد *درپی شهادت سردار پرافتخار حاج قاسم سلیمانی،…
    3 replies 48 retweets 55 likes
  10. Retweeted
    6 hours ago

    ... as part of international Coalition with Iraqi government approval. Calls exceptional session of parliament “to organize the official Iraqi position and take necessary and appropriate legislative decisions and measures to preserve Iraq’s dignity, security and sovereignty.”

    13 retweets 16 likes
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  11. Retweeted
    6 hours ago

    Iraqi prime minister condemns U.S. “assassination” of Qassem Suleimani and Abu Mehdi al-Muhandis, whose killing, as an Iraqi official, is “an aggression against Iraq – its state, government and people.” Says act is “grievous breach” of conditions for U.S. forces’ presence...

    9 replies 159 retweets 224 likes
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  12. 11 hours ago

    Pentagon statement on killing Qasem Suleimani, via and . Not a word about Abul-Mehdi al-Mohandes. Was he some sort of collateral damage?

    1 reply 3 retweets 6 likes
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  13. 11 hours ago

    IRGC confirms Qasim Suleimani's death.

    1 reply 1 retweet 3 likes
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  14. 11 hours ago

    If the US starts losing rights/ability to operate in Iraq, a likely side effect is losing safe/legal border access to Syria. It might not be impossible to keep some troops with SDF anyway—the US can do a lot of things, and KRG isn't Baghdad—but Trump seems moderately interested.

    1 reply 4 retweets 15 likes
  15. Retweeted
    12 hours ago

    🔺 اعلام يؤكد استشهاد نائب رئيس هيئة الحشد الحاج وقائد فيلق القدس بغارة استهدفت عجلتهم على طريق الدولي. و سنوافيكم بالتفاصيل لاحقا انا لله وانا اليه راجعون

    2,311 replies 1,045 retweets 6,033 likes
  16. 12 hours ago

    "Senior Pentagon official" tells and it's Suleimani and Mohandes.

    2 retweets 3 likes
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  17. 12 hours ago

    Al-Mayadeen, too.

    1 reply 2 retweets 2 likes
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  18. 12 hours ago

    2020 is off to a flying start, then.

    MP Ahmed Al-Assadi, spokesman of PMU and Fatah coalition confirmed in a WhatsApp group belong to the PMU the death of Qassim Solaimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Mohandus
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    1 reply 2 retweets 5 likes
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  19. 14 hours ago

    Continued American-Iranian murder ping pong in Iraq. :

    2 replies 4 retweets 11 likes
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  20. Retweeted
    20 hours ago

    "The Pentagon, understandably, is worried about protecting troops and contractors in Iraq. But the Trump administration seems to have thought little about the political consequences—in part, because there is almost no one in Baghdad to consider them."

    9 retweets 9 likes
  21. 16 hours ago

    Latest update says the period from December 1, 2019, to January 1, 2020, saw nearly 300,000 displaced in northwestern Syria.

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  22. Retweeted
    23 hours ago

    Motion on troop deployment to Libya passes Turkish Parliament with 325 votes

    10 retweets 3 likes
  23. 17 hours ago

    In Lebanon, the bank robs you.

    2 retweets 4 likes
  24. Retweeted
    Jan 2

    Reopening Hasaka-Aleppo Highway revives hopes on merchandising Hasaka agricultural crops

    3 retweets 4 likes
  25. Retweeted
    21 hours ago

    Since April, at least 60 health facilities in northwestern Syria have been damaged in strikes, and at least 29 of them were on the off limits list. But the United Nations, at least so far, is looking at just seven incidents.

    1 reply 11 retweets 8 likes
  26. 21 hours ago

    Survey of displaced Syrians newly arrived in the northernmost part of Idlib province and in the western Aleppo countryside: numbers, locations, needs, and intentions to move on to other areas or not. by

    1 reply 14 retweets 13 likes
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  27. 22 hours ago

    Which, I got to say, is really an unusual level of international depravity even for the Syrian war.

    2 retweets 2 likes
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  28. 23 hours ago

    This, mind you, is an area only accessible to the UN from Turkey, but unless Russia, United States, and other veto powers can come to a last-minute agreement in the Security Council, the UN will lose its right to cross that border eight days from now.

    The 284,000 who fled last month are in addition to 400,000 displaced by the fighting in May-August 2019. UN agencies and aid groups are now trying to rush tents, rain-proof sheeting, warm blankets, and food to people gathered under open sky in mid winter.
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    2 replies 3 retweets 5 likes
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  29. 23 hours ago

    The 284,000 who fled last month are in addition to 400,000 displaced by the fighting in May-August 2019. UN agencies and aid groups are now trying to rush tents, rain-proof sheeting, warm blankets, and food to people gathered under open sky in mid winter.

    The UN () estimates 284,000 people fled their homes in northwestern Syria in December alone. Four fifths were women and children. The Maarrat Nouman region, where the Syrian army is focusing its offensive, is now reportedly almost depopulated. …
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    1 reply 9 retweets 3 likes
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  30. 23 hours ago

    The UN () estimates 284,000 people fled their homes in northwestern Syria in December alone. Four fifths were women and children. The Maarrat Nouman region, where the Syrian army is focusing its offensive, is now reportedly almost depopulated.

    1 reply 18 retweets 14 likes
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  31. 23 hours ago

    The United States and Iran should take a deep breath and de-escalate in Iraq, or they could find themselves locked into a hard-to-break conflict spiral that would wreck Iraqi stability, says .

    13 retweets 19 likes
  32. Retweeted
    Jan 2

    2019 Syria Humanitarian Response Plan Funding (as of 31 Dec) 🔷 $1.92b received from donors 🔶 $1.37b gap in unmet requirements With thanks to the generous top donors: 🇺🇸🇩🇪🇬🇧🇪🇺🇨🇦🇳🇴🇯🇵🇶🇦🇩🇰🇸🇪

    4 retweets 9 likes
  33. 23 hours ago

    Great recapitulation of how and why Turkey waded into Libya, and why that won't necessarily end well for Ankara, by .

    1 reply 7 retweets 12 likes
  34. 23 hours ago

    On the emergence of the eastern Mediterranean as a zone of geopolitical tension, by .

    2 retweets 2 likes
  35. Retweeted
    Jan 1

    What do we do every day? Cover under-reported emergencies, long-simmering conflicts, extremism, and other . Here’s what’s on our radar for 2020:

    30 retweets 42 likes
  36. Retweeted
    Jan 2

    Spreading Sahel violence, mysterious attacks in Mozambique and a resurgent Boko Haram – read our highlights from a year of on-the-ground reporting on militancy in Africa.

    4 retweets 6 likes
  37. Retweeted
    Jan 2

    In other Carlos Ghosn-related news, three Lebanese lawyers are suing him - for entering Israel. Reminder that Lebanon is not 100 per cent a Ghosn-friendly zone.

    4 replies 21 retweets 41 likes
  38. Retweeted
    Jan 2

    The business deal follows pleas from the United States for to wean itself off of Iranian electricity imports.

    5 retweets 14 likes
  39. Retweeted
    Jan 1
    Replying to

    Map of military influence in Syria 01-01-2020 The map of military influence in for December 2019 showed a new change in the total control ratios between the conflicting forces on the Syrian soil, compared to the ratios recorded last November.

    2 retweets 6 likes
  40. Jan 1

    And here is "Hybrid Actors" (2019), co-written by , , , , , and myself. It deals with how powerful armed groups have approached the issues governance and political status in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon.

    1 reply 4 retweets 8 likes
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  41. Jan 1

    Here's "Citizenship and Its Discontents" (2019), edited by and . It's offers smart thoughts on rights and political inclusion by , , , , , , and many others.

    2 replies 12 retweets 34 likes
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