Sara Sadek

“من المرجح أن ينخفض الإقبال بصورة تاريخية إلى نحو 20% مما يدل على عدم جدوى هذه الانتخابات”

Blessed with milder temperatures than its Gulf neighbors as well as abundant rain and snow fall, Iran is one of the last countries in the region to introduce a seawater transfer plan to fight unprecedented levels of drought. The plan, once fully implemented, could help build water corridors linking the shores of Iran’s southern Gulf to those of its northern Caspian Sea. Named the Hope Transfer Line, the plan promises prosperity for farmers and industrialists, and potable water for communities in some 10,000 villages and urban areas located in so-called Red Zones, a category that applies to regions coping with severe water scarcity. 

On Sept. 15, 2020, the world witnessed a new era of Israeli-Arab relations as the UAE and Bahrain opened diplomatic relations with Israel, in what is known as the Abraham Accords. Unlike the Israeli-Egyptian or the Israeli-Jordanian peace deals, which aimed to end direct military confrontations, the Abraham Accords seek to maximize common interests and address security issues to form a new front against Iranian threats. As Biden’s administration shows a willingness to return to some form of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the joint cooperation between Israel and the Gulf states is becoming more visible than ever, particularly in cyberspace, where they share a common enemy.

The Black Sea region is currently managing military pressure from Russia, the economic influence of China, and soft power efforts of the West, making it a stage for power competition. With COVID-19 exacerbating Ukraine’s political weaknesses and economic vulnerabilities, Russia and China are increasingly adopting a united front in the Black Sea. Such geopolitical changes in power distribution require more active presence and involvement of the U.S. in the Black Sea.

The complexities, converging interests, and persistent tensions marking Iranian-Russian relationships are evident in their policies toward the Caspian Sea region. Iran and Russia are the two largest countries that border the sea, the world’s largest inland body of water. The Caspian region therefore provides many opportunities for diplomatic, economic, and military engagement between Iran and Russia. Some issues of mutual importance relating to the Caspian include the Nagorno-Karabakh War, the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, NATO partnerships in the Caucasus region, and the construction of trans-Caspian pipelines.

“لاتزال ثمة عقبات خطيرة محتملة على المدى القريب أمام تشكيل حكومة إسرائيلية جديدة”

Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.

The scene was a familiar one, even if the scale was not. On May 17 and 18, thousands of migrants entered Ceuta, one of two Spanish enclaves in North Africa that border Morocco. The record flow of irregular migrants surpassed 12,000 people over the course of two days. The Spanish authorities quickly understood that this surge in migration was about more than the usual human desperation that has driven large numbers of people over fences and across water in an effort to enter Europe in recent years. Morocco, troubled over Madrid’s stance on its territorial claims over the Western Sahara, decided to retaliate.

There is only one thread holding together the unprecedentedly disparate parties that will establish and support the nascent Israeli government announced on the night of June 2, an hour before the midnight deadline. That thread is, of course, a shared loathing for Benjamin Netanyahu. Whether that thread will even get the new government past its first hurdle, which is a vote of confidence in the Knesset, much less to its theoretical four years, is an open question. Until recently no one could have imagined such a political monstrosity might be conceived, let alone gestated, but there’s a decent chance this government will get off the ground.

انتخابات الرئاسة في إيران وازداد نفوذ المتشدّين هو موضوع هذه الحلقة من ‘آراء من واشنطن’، ويستعرض فيها إبراهيم الأصيل رأياً لنازيلا فتحي. هل تتفقوا مع نازيلا في طرحها؟

In this policy paper, Dr. Karen E. Youngsets out to delineate and compare economic diversification efforts underway in the GCC that might prove useful in the Iraqi context, for the state as a whole, and measures that might be adopted in the context of the Kurdistan region.