Shana Cohen

In only six days, a broad coalition of advancing opposition forces coordinated by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has captured all of Idlib province, almost all of Aleppo province, and a sizeable stretch of northern Hama — a humiliating defeat for Bashar al-Assad and illustrative of the fragility of regime rule in Syria.

Putting Lebanon back on the path of statehood and economic recovery is not only an urgent necessity for the Lebanese but also a step toward building a more peaceful and prosperous Middle East

Since March 2020, Syria’s conflict lines have been frozen, as Russia, Turkey, Iran and the United States held together a series of ceasefires and security understandings. That all changed this week, when a broad coalition of armed opposition groups launched a surprise and daring offensive west of Aleppo city.

As they sweep across northern Syria, the advancing rebels are posing fundamental questions not just for the regime of Bashar al-Assad, but for watching neighbours and Western leaders.

Last week, as I made my way to Beirut airport, I drove through bombed out streets in an empty city. The Lebanese national airline still bravely flew in and out, its planes weaving their way between Israeli airstrikes. I boarded my flight to attend a conference, hoping we would make it out safely. I left behind a population that had paid a very heavy price for 13 months of war between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel: thousands of dead and injured, thousands of homes and businesses destroyed, and over 1.2 million displaced.

اقرأ تقرير MEI الأسبوعي الذي يتضمن تحليلات الخبراء للتطورات الإقليمية الرئيسية للأسبوع المقبل.

There is no quick path to limiting or reducing Iranian influence in Iraq. Tehran will react fiercely to American efforts to destroy the militias and zero-out its influence, and it would have multiple avenues to escalate through the porous 900-mile-long border between the two countries. Moreover, domestic Iraqi reaction, especially among elements of the Shi’a population, would be reticent at best and hostile at worst to intensified American military actions. Nor should it be an American goal to stoke a civil war among Iraq’s Shi’a that would give Iran new access points.

The Persian Gulf-Black Sea International Transport and Transit Corridor, which Tehran proposed eight years ago, remains relevant today in the context of strategic competition, as it offers Iran and participating countries an alternative trade route that bypasses traditional Western-dominated shipping lanes, potentially reshaping regional economic dynamics and geopolitical influence.

For decades, the MENA region’s pivotal role in the global economy has been rooted primarily in oil and gas exports. The region’s GDP grew from $1 trillion USD in 2000 to nearly $4.5 trillion in 2022, and more than 60% of that combined GDP is in its oil-exporting countries.

على مدار إدارتي بايدن وترامب، نظرت الولايات المتحدة باستمرار إلى الصين على أنها المنافس العالمي الرئيسي، لا سيما في مجال الذكاء الاصطناعي سريع التطور. وقد أكدت إدارة الرئيس بايدن مؤخرًا هذا الموقف من خلال أول مذكرة للأمن القومي (NSM) بشأن الذكاء الاصطناعي، والتي أرست أساسًا متينًا لمواجهة التحدي الذي تشكله بكين في مجال الذكاء الاصطناعي.

نُشر هذا المقال لأول مرة في مركز السياسات للجنوب الجديد. شارك في تأليفه محمد سليمان وألبرتو تاجليابيترا.

To abandon the Syria mission now would bring no meaningful benefit to the US, but it would swiftly and significantly empower America’s adversaries, like ISIS, Iran, Russia, and Assad’s regime.

As Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, the main question in Tehran is not so much what the incoming American president will do about Iran. Rather, it is about whether Tehran should negotiate with him.

MEI Senior Fellow for Israeli Affairs Nimrod Goren and Associate Research Professor Ilai Saltzman discuss potential shifts in US policy, the outlook for Israeli politics in 2025, and the challenges to advancing peace on the Israeli-Palestinian front. Tune in for expert insights on what lies ahead.