The MED This Week newsletter provides expert analysis and informed insights on the most significant developments in the MENA region, bringing together unique opinions on the topic and reliable foresight on future scenarios. Today, we focus on Syria, recently back in the spotlight following the sixth edition of the EU-promoted Brussels Conference and Assad’s recent visit to Tehran.
Regardless of how things play out in Ukraine over the near-term, it appears all but certain that Russia and the West will find themselves locked in a protracted confrontation for years to come. The Syrian civil war and the Iran dossier provide good test cases for assessing how that confrontation could affect the Middle East. In Syria, Russia and the West have in recent years competed for influence, deconflicted to avoid clashes, while cooperating selectively on counterterrorism, humanitarian issues, and a political process under UN auspices.
On March 11, two weeks after the creation of Ukraine’s International Legion, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would approve the deployment of up to 16,000 Middle Eastern fighters to support Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine.
The MED This Week newsletter provides expert analysis and informed comments on the MENA region’s most significant issues and trends. Today, we turn the spotlight on Tunisia, where the ongoing political crisis has intensified after President Kais Saied dissolved the Parliament, which had been frozen since July. This move has further plunged the country into political turmoil and stoked fears of a nascent autocracy.
The MED This Week newsletter provides expert analysis and informed insights on the most significant developments in the MENA region, bringing together unique opinions on the topic and reliable foresight on future scenarios. Today, we turn the spotlight on Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's visit to the UAE, his first trip to an Arab country in over a decade.
Turkey’s newfound willingness to engage states it long antagonised, most notably Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Israel, holds the potential to lead to a reshuffling of international relations in the Middle East. Across the region, these developments could herald a further weakening of Sunni Islamist organisations such as the Muslim Brotherhood and its many offshoots, and could also buttress the anti-Iran partnership linking the Gulf states to Israel.
As the crisis in Ukraine grips the world’s attention, international interest in the war in Syria is once again waning. Yet, what happens in Syria remains tremendously consequential, for the stability of the Middle East and the world at large.
The MED This Week newsletter provides expert analysis and informed insights on the most significant developments in the MENA region, bringing together unique opinions on the topic and reliable foresight on future scenarios. Today we focus on the Islamic State's recent activity in Syria and Iraq. The latest attack on a prison in northeast Syria is perhaps the most sophisticated operation launched by the group since 2019. Therefore, it raises concerns about the possible resurgence of IS in the region.
Ten years after the outbreak of the civil war and the beginning of its international isolation, Syria is experiencing a normalization momentum. Syrian ministers and officials have resumed participating in bilateral meetings with their regional counterparts, and Damascus has been included in the talks on Lebanon’s energy crisis. Furthermore, in the past months, a series of symbolic gestures proved that many Arab leaders are now ready to re-engage with Syria.
The MED This Week newsletter provides expert analysis and informed insights on the most significant developments in the MENA region, bringing together unique opinions on the topic and reliable foresight on future scenarios. Today, we focus on Syria, recently at the core of a renewed interest by neighbouring Arab states, willing to re-establish diplomatic ties with the Assad regime.
Twenty years have passed since the 9/11 attacks — an event that had wide-ranging implications from different perspectives: on policy-makers’ decisions in domestic and foreign policy; on collective imaginary and on society; and, not last, on the very jihadi movement and its evolution.