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Ali Hashem is a journalist with a focus on Iran and Shiite political Islam. He is the editor in chief of AlMayadeen.net, former Tehran bureau chief for the Al Mayadeen news network, and a former reporter for Al Jazeera and the BBC. Ali writes extensively for Al-Monitor and Al Mayadeen and his articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Huffington Post, Abu Dhabi’s The National, Beirut’s Assafir, and Tokyo’s Facta, among others. On Twitter: @alihashem_tv
Turkey’s intervention in the Syrian conflict signals a new milestone in the five-year-old Syrian crisis, with its insertion as a new direct player certain to further complicate the dynamics of this already complicated conflict. Turkey’s Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria wasn’t a surprise with respect to the concept—the Turks have been advocating a safe zone for several years—but it was so in terms of timing, just six weeks after the failed coup attempt.
