Al Jazeera January 18, 2026, 5-min. (download)
See more and recent Syria coverage here.
Category: Al Jazeera
AlJazeera.com
Interview: Israel gas deal: Netanyahu says he’s approved $35b gas deal with Egypt
Interview: Gaza and West Bank update and responsibilities of U.S. and international community.
Al Jazeera, Dec. 1, 2025 (5 mins., English): On the situation in Gaza and the West Bank and the responsibilities of the United States and the international community.
Interview: Gaza Peace Proposal; Israel and Hamas Agree on First Phase of Deal
Interview: How will Israeli attack in Qatar affect efforts to end Gaza war?
AlJazeera television, Sept. 10, 2025.
Stephen Zunes, was one of the three guests.
Israel’s bombing of a residential building in the capital, Doha, that was housing Hamas leaders, has drawn global condemnation. Fighter jets fired missiles into a residential compound in central Doha, where leaders of Hamas were meeting to discuss a US proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Analysis: How will the US respond to Israel’s killing of Al Jazeera crew?
DAWN Newspaper, August 11, 2025: Stephen Zunes, the chair of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco, says he believes Israel’s killing of Al Jazeera’s crew will increase public pressure on the US government. “The American people are waking up,” Zunes told Al Jazeera from San Francisco.
“I’ve dealt with issues around Palestine, US policy, for more than 40 years. It really strikes me the way that the attitude is shifting. And I think this killing is really going to, at least on the civil society level, going to only increase pressure on the United States to stop giving this blank check to Israel in the face of atrocities, including genocide. “But unfortunately, I don’t see a shift in terms of Washington’s policy,” he said. Zunes also described the killing of the Al Jazeera correspondents as a warning to other journalists, noting that it came hours after Netanyahu said he would allow foreign reporters into Gaza for the first time since the war. “It’ll be interesting to see who he allows in and what restrictions they have, and perhaps these murders are a sign that you better not report anything critical,” he said.
Interview: What’s the real motive behind Israel’s involvement in Syria?
Al Jazeera English Inside Story July 17, 2025 (16.5M subscribers):
Zunes joins a Syrian and Israeli analyst on latest developments in Israel’s war on Syria.
No Iranian threat ‘other than having US regional interests challenged’
Al Jazeera June 22, 2025 [source], 3-minute video,
also World News, Virtual Jerusalem, Israel Insider, Ticker:
Zunes says the suggestion that Iran posed any kind of threat to the US is “totally nonsense”… “Iran has no capabilities of reaching the United States with its missiles or other kinds of weaponry… And if the concern was about their nuclear programme eventually being militarised to make nuclear weapons, Trump would not have destroyed” the 2015 nuclear deal… “I have a feeling he’s been wanting to launch war on Iran for some time…” contrary to what Trump had campaigned on… [Iran has] “a number of options… They can attack US forces directly. There are up to 40,000 Americans within the range, not just of Iranian missiles but of drones and other weaponry… You have the fleet in the Persian Gulf, just off the Iranian coast. They can be vulnerable as well if they attack… it could impact global shipping, impacting oil prices and indeed the entire global economy… You also have proxy militias in Iraq who could target American bases there… So there are a number of ways American forces could be vulnerable, and I would be surprised if the Iranians don’t target at least some of these.”
Interviews: The Israel-Iran War, June 2025
*Al Jazeera English, June 19, 2025 [source no longer available]
*For a Bay Area TV network affiliate, KTVU, June 13, 2025
*A 50-minute interview for a British podcast
*A ten-minute interview for a radio show/podcast in upstate New York
*For a national Indian news show, June 13
(along with a pro-war Wall Street Journal reporter):
*A 50-minute interview with a New Zealand radio show and podcast, June 17, hosted by an American expat (in which I also talk about Gaza and about Trump and the resistance)
Interview: Trump Orders Strikes on Houthis in Yemen
Interview: Can Egypt’s plan for Gaza backed by Arab League become reality?
Al-Jazeera English March 5, 2025 (28 mins.): On the Arab League’s summit and quite reasonable reconstruction and administrative plan for Gaza, which both Israel and the United States have rejected. This follows US President Donald Trump’s proposal to forcibly expel Palestinians and turn Gaza into a US-controlled beach resort. Presenter Sami Zeidan interviews Zunes along with Ori Goldberg – Political commentator, and Mansour Shouman – Middle East political analyst.
Interview: Status on the Ceasefire
Interview: Trump’s policy toward Palestinians
Two recent interviews on CNA television, Singapore-based multinational news channel:
Jordan, Egypt unlikely to take in more Palestinian refugees despite Trump’s threats (8 mins.)
Trump’s proposal to ‘clean out’ Gaza disturbing (7 mins.)
Interview: Israel’s devastating military offensive in the occupied West Bank
Al-Jazeera English “Inside Story” February 4, 2025: One of three experts, Zunes’s segment begins at 9 mins. of 27.
Interview: Gaza Ceasefire Status
Al Jazeera English, January 25, 2025 (video 6-minutes) on the status of the Gaza Ceasefire agreement and U.S. policy.
Gaza Ceasefire: Five Interviews Jan. 2025
- Al-Jazeera English [Source is no longer accessible]
- KPFA-FM (segment begins at 1:05): Most comprehensive with a special emphasis
on Biden administration policy - KTVU, a Bay Area network affiliate: Three short interviews
* https://www.ktvu.com/video/1577477
* https://www.ktvu.com/video/1577202
* https://bit.ly/4jiAD9v
TV 4 Interviews on Syria and Ouster of Assad, December 2024
- Fox-2/KTVU: Russia grants asylum to ousted Syrian leader
- And 3 more aired on Al Jazeera Media View,
December 2024 [source links are no longer available]:
*US has carried out air strikes on 75 ISIL targets throughout Syria
*Thousands celebrate in Damascus
*Assad’s leaving the capital Damascus
*Plus a one-minute excerpt gone viral.
Syria Background: Zunes’ Articles, Interviews and Videos Since 2011 Arab Spring
- From Gaza to Aleppo: A Handy Guide for Defending War Crimes: This article notes the remarkable parallel in the language used by those defending war crimes by the Assad regime and war crimes by Israel
- Here’s an analysis also from 2016 regarding the state of the conflict and U.S. policy: Syria After the Ceasefire
- This article from 2019 examines the Trump administration’s recognition of Israel’s illegal annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights (a decision upheld by the Biden administration) in defiance of the United Nations Security Council declaring it “null and void”: U.S. Recognition of Golan Annexation a Threat to World Order
- These two critically examine the ongoing U.S. military presence in Syria:
*Despite Everything US Troops Should Leave Syria (2019)
*If Biden Wants to Protect the Troops He Should Bring Them Home, Not Bomb, Syria (2021) - These four articles from 2017-2018 examine the U.S. response to Syrian chemical weapons attacks:
*History Shows Hypocrisy of U.S. Outrage over Chemical Weapons in Syria
*Why the United States Can’t Lead on Syria’s Chemical Weapons
*Trump’s Dangerous, Cynical Attack on Syria: Pacifica’s Sojourner Truth Radio
*Why These Missile Strikes Won’t Make Things Better for Syrian People - These links examine divisions over Syria within the
U.S. left and what a progressive policy would entail:
*How Syria Divides the Left (2017 written interview)
*The Anti-War Movement Must Listen to Voices Within Syria’s Civil War (2016 op-ed article)
*Why are Some Left Activists Falling for Fake News on Syria (television interview) - These articles from 2012-15 look at the debates regarding U.S. military intervention in Syria: *Obama’s Escalation in Syria (2015)
*Eight Arguments Against Going to War with Syria (2013)
*Despite Horrific Repression, the US Should Stay Out of Syria (2013)
*Military Intervention in Syria is a Bad Idea (2012) - And these two articles are my response to a series of articles attacking me for my opposition to U.S. military intervention in Syria:
*Opposition to Intervention in Syria is Utilitarian not Ideological (2013)
*On Syria Most Thoughtful People are Torn (2013) - On nonviolent alternatives in Syria during the early phases of the uprising:
*Supporting Nonviolence in Syria (2012)
*Unarmed Resistance Still Syria’s Best Hope (2012) - More on U.S. double-standards regarding Syria:
*U.S. Outrage over Syria Veto at UN Rife with Hypocrisy (2012)
*U.S. in No Position to Condemn Russian Transfer of Helicopter Gunships to Syrian Regime (2012) - On an earlier Israeli attack on Syria and the U.S. role in blocking Israeli-Syrian peace initiatives: Israel, Syria, and the United States (2013)
3 Interviews on the ICC indictments of 2 Israeli Leaders and US Response
- An eight-minute interview for the main Singapore television news on the impact of the indictments
- Al-Jazeera English half hour conversation with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese and Israeli scholar Ori Goldberg on the ramifications of the ICC’s indictments (also a Daily Telegraph “Quotable” one-minute clip which has been making the rounds)
- On an Arab Organization for Human Rights panel addressing U.S. and Israeli efforts to undermine the authority of the International Criminal Court (Dr. Zunes’ segment starts at 31:30 plus additional remarks starting at 1:16:20 and 1:32:50.)
Lectures and 11 Interviews Nov. 2024 on Trump’s Election and the Middle East
First view Dr. Zunes’ 5-minute animated summary (scroll down to third video), of his research on coup resistance; then his Lecture at the University of San Francisco on how to prepare for the aftermath of the election in the event of an attempted coup or legitimate victory by Trump.
- Lecture before the Unitarian Universalists of San Francisco on what a Trump administration would mean to the Middle East (1 hour 20 mins.)
- Al-Jazeera English: [source link may be unavailable.]:
Interview on recent developments involving Israel, Lebanon, Gaza and the US (24 mins.) - Al-Jazeera English [source link may be unavailable.]:
4-minute interview on new developments in Syria - I’m one of three professors interviewed on AJE’s “Inside Story” about Biden’s responsibility in Harris’s defeat
- A half-hour interview for a Wisconsin radio station on Trump’s cabinet appointments and the effect a Trump regime may have on the Middle East
- A 25-minute interview with Kris Welch on KPFA-FM on the impact of the election on the Middle East (segment starts at the 32-minute mark)
- A 50-minute interview for a New Zealand radio show and podcast about the U.S. election and its broader implications
- A 45-minute interview for a San Francisco NPR affiliate on the U.S.-backed war on Gaza and the impact of the U.S. election
- I gave this brief analysis on the election and the Middle East for a San Francisco Bay Area network affiliates
- Interviewed briefly on KPFA-FM’s evening news about how U.S. policy in support of Israel’s wars on Gaza and Lebanon could be impacted by Trump’s election victory (segment begins at the 13:55 mark)
- On Pacifica Radio’s “Flashpoints” (KPFA) talking about the then-upcoming election and foreign policy
- KPFA radio news interview on Israel’s attacks on Iran, the ongoing war crimes in Gaza, and the impact on the then-upcoming US election (segment starts at the 16:15).