The Egyptian/Qatari initiative has afforded breathing room for Gaza, while Hamas and Prime Minister Netanyahu have demonstrated a determination to avoid war, for now.
Negotiations shepherded by Egypt appear to be making progress in establishing a new, more stable chapter in the ongoing conflict, but instability remains at the heart of the Gaza standoff.
MEI’s Jonathan Winer joins guest host Alistair Taylor to discuss the conditions in Libya nearly eight years after the country’s revolution, from the situation on the ground to the prospects for elections and political settlement more broadly.
In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts discuss recent and upcoming events including the Gaza flare-up and its threat to Egyptian-led negotiations, Russian-hosted Afghan peace talks, the ground offensive in Hodeidah, and rapid escalation in northwestern Syria.
In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts discuss recent and upcoming events including the ongoing conflict in Yemen, the potential impact of the midterm elections on US Middle East policy, U.S.-Turkey rapprochement, escalating tensions in northern Syria, the upcoming Palermo conference on Libya, and the potential for political fallout in Pakistan and peace talks in Afghanistan.
King Abdullah’s decision to cancel a 25 year land lease to Israel is likely to exacerbate long-simmering tensions between the two nations and challenge the cold peace that has been in place since 1994.
The UN has undertaken a series of steps to push Libya beyond the uneasy stability imposed by the militias. Together with Plan B, an economic-military-political package could provide the means to do so.
The most recent EU summit, in June 2018, only proved that the EU’s member states do not share any common long-term perspective on migration from Middle East to Europe. This lack of cohesion, as well as a lack of substantial cooperation with the U.S., are the best recipe for a humanitarian disaster in 2019.
On Sep. 13, 1993, President Bill Clinton presided over one of the most dramatic handshakes in modern history. On the White House lawn, the handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the Palestinian Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat was hailed as a political breakthrough that would constitute the dawn of a new era for the Middle East. Now, 25 years after the announcement of the Declaration of Principles––also known as the Oslo Accords––the prospect of peace appears more elusive than ever.
In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Jonathan M. Winer, Robert S. Ford, and Alex Vatanka provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including political turmoil in Libya, the meeting between Turkey and Russia to discuss the fate of Idlib province, and Iran’s attempts to forge new relationships to offset U.S. sanctions.
A turbulent trial for Tripoli
In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Ahmad Majidyar, Gerald Feierstein, and Charles Lister provide analysis on the first batch of U.S. sanctions on Iran, leaked emails that may undermine the Trump administration’s Mideast peace plan, and the assassination of a Syrian military scientist.
Will US sanctions bring Iran back to the negotiating table?
Read the full article on Haaretz.
In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts provide analysis on Secretary Pompeo’s speech on Iran, Erdogan’s decision to lift Turkey’s state of emergency, the cease-fire in Gaza, Iran’s continued threat in Syria, Trump’s tweets on Iran, and Vice President Dostum’s return to Afghanistan.
Trump’s Iran gamble
Alex Vatanka, Senior Fellow @AlexVatanka
After U.S. Vice President Mike Pence laid out the Trump administration’s agenda in a speech earlier this year before Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, one attendee asked, “was that the messiah or the vice president of the United States?”
