AL-Monitor Senior Correspondent Amberin Zaman interviews newsmakers, journalists, and thought leaders from the US and Middle East about the latest news and trends in the region. Amberin travels the region for AL-Monitor, specializing in news and analysis in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and the Caucasus and writes the weekly Turkey Briefing newsletter. Prior to AL-Monitor, she covered Turkey, the Kurds, and conflicts in the region for The Washington Post, The Daily Telegraph, The Los Angeles Times and the Voice of America, and was The Economist's Turkey correspondent from 1999 to 2016.
Ankara's latest effort to end a four-decade-long Kurdish insurgency is opaque and full of risks and opportunities for Turkey and Syria, says lawmaker Cengiz Candar. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .
Talmiz Ahmad, a former Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, explains why Gulf nations led by Saudi Arabia tilt in favor of India despite long-running ties with Muslim Pakistan. Pakistan's refusal to join Saudi Arabia in its war against the Houthis — and a jihadi attack on Mumbai in 2008 — were a tipping point, he says. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Charles Lister, the head of the Syria Initiative at the Middle East Institute in Washington, argues that after five months in power Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the ultimate pragmatist, is adjusting to the complexity of governing his ethnically diverse and fractured country. This involves striking deals with the Kurds and Druze that fly in the face of the rigidly centralized model he once espoused. And contrary to popular belief he is not a "Turkish puppet,” Lister says. See Privacy Policy ...
Makram Rabah, an assistant professor at the American University in Beirut, says that Syria's interim president lacks the power to control his own army and that Washington needs to engage with Syria's new government to help defuse sectarian violence and for peace to prevail in the war-ravaged country. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Starvation, disease, mutilation and death have become the norm for children in Gaza, says Arwa Damon, founder of the INARA charity. She warns that aid workers, journalists and medics are also being targeted, making it nearly impossible to deliver relief to children trapped in a cycle of despair. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Since last week, Turkey has been rocked by mass protests over the jailing of Istanbul's opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, on thinly-evidence corruption and terrorism charges. These protests are widely seen as the most significant challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he came to power 22 years ago. Turkey experts Gonul Tol and Lisel Hintz weigh the risks and opportunities for the country’s beleaguered democracy. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy No...
Russia is seeking to keep its naval bases in Syria, viewing them as a vital strategic asset. Syria's interim president, a hard nosed pragmatist, will likely strike working relations with the Kremlin while trying to defuse tensions with Israel and win over the United States, says the International Crisis Group's Jerome Drevon, who has met Sharaa numerous times. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
The wave of sectarian violence that gripped Syria last week has marred the image of the country's new Islamist president, Ahmad al-Sharaa. Could the government have done more to prevent it? French academic Fabrice Balanche says it absolutely could have. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Israel's expansionist policy in Syria's Golan Heights and its support for the Druze and Kurdish minorities are justified by Israeli officials on the grounds that they are protecting natural allies and countering Turkish influence. Yet Syria expert Joshua Landis says Israel's actions are having the opposite effect, making Syria's new Islamist leaders more dependent on Turkey for their protection. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/pr...
Private military contractors are changing the nature of warfare as national governments outsource fighting to mercenaries, especially in the Middle East and Africa. None has elicited as much interest as Russia's Wagner Group and its founder Yevgheny Prighozin with others following in his footsteps, as author John Lechner explains. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Since April last year, the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been in talks with imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. The goal is to get his organization to end its 40 year-long armed campaign against the Turkish state. But one of Turkey's demands, that Ocalan’s concessions extend to northeast Syria where a PKK-linked group has been in control since 2012, is unrealistic, says Kurdish Peace Institute director Giran Ozcan. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and...
The surprise fall of Iran's close regional ally Bashar al-Assad has dealt a huge blow to Tehran's so called axis of resistance running through Iraq onto Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran's loss is Turkey's gain and Tehran is increasingly worried about rising Turkish influence, says Hamidreza Azizi. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Iran is badly weakened by Israel's pummeling of its Shiite allies in the Levant. Yet, unlike during Trump's first presidential term, Gulf powerhouse Saudi Arabia has been mending relations with the Islamic Republic. Vali Nasr, a leading expert on Iran, says there is room for cautious optimism for nuclear talks to resume. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Nikolaos van Dam, the Netherland's former Syria envoy and an acclaimed Arabist who has authored several books on the country, says Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria's new ruler and the leader of the al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, ought to be supported by Western governments. The ambassador notes that the risk of renewed conflict remains high in Syria and that Sharaa must be taken at his word when he says he plans to establish inclusive, democratic rule in the country, because there is no alternati...
Turkey expert Gallia Lindenstrauss, who is a senior fellow at Israel's National Institute of Security Studies, says Israel is concerned about Turkey's expanding influence in Syria with the rise to power of the Al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. With thousands of Turkish troops deployed in Syria, Lindenstrauss says an accidental confrontation with Israeli forces there could trigger a broader conflagration amid worsening ties between the former allies. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/...
Cengiz Candar is a lawmaker for the pro-Kurdish DEM party in Turkey who has spent long years in the Middle East. Candar outlines how Israel has hugely benefited from the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, while Turkey — another big winner — is seeking to thwart Kurdish aspirations. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
French academic Fabrice Balanche, who has written extensively on Syria and just returned from a ten-day -long trip there, believes Turkey is paying a high stakes poker game in Syria through its backing of a Salafist group that has made stunning advances against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Jim Jeffrey, the director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center and former Syria Envoy under the first Trump administration, says in his new term Trump could pull US forces out of Syria. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Human Rights Watch’s Turkey director, Emma Sinclair Webb, analyzes new legislation targeting journalists and civil society and the ouster of Kurdish mayors. The new wave of repression is being greeted with silence by Turkey's western allies. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is holding exploratory talks with Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, to end the 40-year-old Kurdish conflict. Turkey has made clear its expectation that the PKK lay down its arms and end the conflict. What would it take for the PKK to comply? Giran Ozcan, executive director of the Kurdish Peace Institute in Washington, believes Turkey needs to grant its estimated 16 million Kurd...
Fethullah Gulen, the Sunni Muslim Cleric who was accused of engineering the failed coup to overthrow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has died in self imposed exile in the United States. Once feted as a moderate who steered generations of young Muslims away from radicalism, Gulen did untold harm to Turkey's fragile democracy, says Turkish analyst Selim Koru. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
The risk of a region-wide war is growing as Israel carries out ground and air operations against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and beyond. Hezbollah and Iran have been irreversibly weakened in this latest cycle of violence, argues scholar Lina Khatib of Chatham House. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Jim Muir, one of the most seasoned Western journalists in the Middle East, has been covering the Arab-Israeli conflict for almost 50 years. Muir tells Al-Monitor that the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is unlike any other in the past, with unforeseeable consequences for both sides, as well for Lebanon and Iran. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
On Sept. 9, Cyrus and the United States inked a defense cooperation agreement, sparking angry reactions from Turkey. The agreement was signed as Turkey's relations with Washington remain essentially on the rocks. Turkey charges that the United States is using Cyprus to ship weapons to Israel, an accusation that Cyprus denies. However, what goes on at two sovereign British bases on the island remains unknown to the public. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Not...
Few know the true story behind Syria's support for Kurdish militants fighting Turkey. Turkish academic Behlul Ozkan explains how and why Turkey's pro-military rulers backed an Islamist uprising in the early 1980s against the regime of Hafez al-Assad, leading Damascus to open its doors to the PKK. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
While little is known about Vice President Kamala Harris' views on the Middle East and on the world in general, there is far more information available about the approach of her top foreign policy adviser, Phil Gordon, who will likely land a prime position in a future Harris administration if she wins in November. Omer Taspinar, a professor of national security studies at the National War College, has worked with Gordon, co-authoring a book on Turkey with him. He shares his insights on the likel...
Russia's national security chief, Sergei Shoigu, traveled to Tehran this week where he met with Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeskhian. Coming on the heels of the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil, Shoigu's visit prompted a flurry of speculation about the Kremlin's intentions. Iran has vowed revenge for the attack which it has blamed on Israel. Hanna Notte, head of the Eurasia program at the James Martin Center for Nuclear Non Proliferation Studies, unpacks the stakes. ...
Hamidreza Azizi is a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. He tells Al-Monitor that Iran's proxies in Yemen, Iraq and Syria will likely carry out a coordinated campaign to avenge Haniyeh's death and that the chances of a ceasefire in Gaza have been dealt a crippling blow. The risk of a full-blown regional conflict is rising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info...
Ezgi Basaran is a Turkish journalist turned academic who has written a new book examining the outsize influence of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party over Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda party and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood party. While both have suffered huge setbacks, Basaran argues they will re-emerge and that the pursuit of power will trump ideology. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
The election victory of heart surgeon Masoud Pezeshkian has aroused hopes and doubts in Iran and beyond. He is a Reformist who says he will be more lenient towards women and will seek to reduce tensions with the West. Yet, his record is spotty. While defying hawkish clerics on some critical occasions, he has stood up for them on others. As with all else in Iran, deciphering the real Pezeshkian is no easy task, says Iranian academic Arash Azizi. See Privacy Policy at https://art19...
