Vijay Prashad discusses with Newsclick how the US and its allies have struck back against the mas movements that overthrew Ben Ali and Mubarak. This is what he terms as the Libyan Winter. He analyses the forces that the US and its allies are putting together and the danger to the region from these forces.

Israel and its backers have been hinting at possible military intervention in Syria on the pretext of preventing the transfer of its chemical weapons stockpiles to the Lebanese resistance. Such a step would set the region ablaze. Iran and Hezbollah have let it be known to all concerned that they would not stand idly by.

Putting aside all theoretical commentary about what is happening in Syria and the region, it would seem that we face a very high risk of a major explosion in the coming weeks.

Nobel Prize Laureate Günter Grass, the most famous living German writer, published this poem today in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, The New York Times, La Repubblica and El Pais. The weekly Die Zeit had refused to publish it.

Aijaz Ahmad discusses with Newsclick the current stand-off between the US and Iran after the current round of sanctions that includes Irani Central Bank. He believes that the US policy is regime change and no solution can take place unless other countries such as India, Brazil, Turkey, Russia, China, etc intervene.