Introducing: Syria Comment

As the situation in Lebanon warrants (and gains) more and more attention from InstantReplay and our readers, we are taking the liberty of adding the blog of Dr. Joshua Landis, Syria Comment, to the blogroll. Dr. Landis is an assistant professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma, and is living in Damascus presently. Landis' blog is heavily cited in MSM, but we won't hold that against him. He's clearly well-connected and well-informed in Damascus' intellectual circles, and is a good, free source on what's going on inside the increasingly isolated Syrian kleptocracy.

Landis' best recent entry is a translation of an interview Bashar al-Assad did with Repubblica magazine.