Research & Commentary Results

In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Randa Slim, Gonul Tol, W. Robert Pearson, and Alex Vatanka provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including the Kurdish independence referendum and how it will impact the K.R.G.’s negotiations with Baghdad, Turkey’s limited options to respond to the referendum, growing ties between Turkey and Russia, and the mounting political pressure on Iran’s President Rouhani amid President Trump’s attacks on the nuclear deal.

The top Iranian and Turkish military officials discussed the Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence referendum plan and its implications in a telephone call earlier today, Iranian media reported. “The two sides stressed the significance of enhancing bilateral relations and cooperation and described the potential independence referendum in the Iraqi Kurdistan and its ramifications on regional security, peace and stability – including on Iran and Turkey – as detrimental and dangerous,” Iran’s Fars News Agency reported.

Before the conflict in Syria started, Turkey cultivated close ties to the Assad regime. The two countries lifted visa requirements, held joint military exercises and cabinet meetings, and collaborated against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (P.K.K.). Ankara’s newly-adopted philosophy, “zero problems with neighbors,” had—at the time—won praise both at home and abroad. Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, the architect of the policy, at one point described Turkey’s Syria policy as a “striking example” of the success of Ankara’s new foreign policy vision.

The major components of President Donald Trump’s much-awaited Afghanistan strategy are sufficient to give Pakistani strategists sleepless nights. The new plan will acknowledge Pakistan’s significant role in providing safe havens for terrorists; escalate war against the Afghan Taliban while denying it the ability to fight its way into positions of power; and enhance India’s role in stabilizing and developing Afghanistan. Moreover, the strategy does not provide deadlines for withdrawal of U.S. forces.

The Chief of General Staff for the Afghanistan National Defense and Security Forces has said that the Kabul government has evidence that Iran is providing weapons and other military assets to the Taliban in western Afghanistan. In an interview with the BBC Persian, Lieutenant General Mohammad Sharif Yaftali added that President Ashraf Ghani discussed the issue with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani last month in Tehran but did not disclose details of the meeting.

Read the full article on Foreign Affairs.

MEI experts Paul Salem, Will Wechsler, Marvin Weinbaum, and Ahmad Majidyar discuss current issues in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and U.S. policy and strategic interests in the region.

Iran wants to cooperate more closely with Turkey to resolve regional problems, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a telephone conversation earlier today. Rouhani offered his congratulations to Erdogan on the occasion of Eid al-Adha and stressed that he will do more during his second term in office to expand Tehran’s ties with Ankara in all fields.

Relations between Turkey and Germany have become increasingly fraught over the past few months. They hit a new low following the August 19 arrest of Turkish-born German writer Dogan Akhanli in Spain. Akhanli, a frequent critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was held by Spanish authorities in connection with criminal proceedings in Turkey. Germany’s foreign minister has urged Spanish officials not to extradite the writer.

A series of high level diplomatic visits have signaled a surprising rapprochement between Iran and Turkey in recent weeks. What’s driving this warming in relations, and how has Russia been involved? What are the potential consequences in the region and for U.S. policy there? MEI’s Gonul Tol and Alex Vatanka join Paul Salem to discuss.

Al-Qaeda appears set to make a comeback in Pakistan, with battle-hardened militants returning from Syria and Iraq and eyeing for the resurrection of al-Qaeda in Pakistan.[i] A new terror group, Jamaat ul Ansar al-Shariah Pakistan, surfaced in June 2017, and is comprised of fighters who have returned from the Middle East.

Turkey has three options to tackle a looming threat to its national security emanating from the situation in Syria’s Idlib Province, according to an an

Read the full article on The National Interest.

Last night Donald J. Trump became the third consecutive U.S. president to ensure that his successor will also need to wage war in Afghanistan. This is justifiably frustrating to the American public, but unfortunately appropriate to the threats at hand.

In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Yousef Munayyer, Paul Salem, Ahmad Majidyar, Alex Vatanka, and Gonul Tol provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including the upcoming trip by the U.S. delegation headed by Jared Kushner to Israel/Palestine, Iraq’s anti-ISIS operation in Tal Afar, President Trump’s upcoming announcement on U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan, Iran’s efforts to find a role in China’s One Belt, One Road project, and Turkey’s rocky relations with Germany.

In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Paul Salem, Gonul Tol, Alex Vatanka, and Jonathan M. Winer provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic engagements in the region, Turkey’s consideration of military operations in northern Syria, Iranian President Rouhani’s centrist cabinet nominations, and Libyan leaders’ decision between greater cooperation or renewed confrontation.