Middle Orient

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become the longest-serving leader in the history of the Turkish Republic. He has been a controversial yet dominant figure in Turkish politics since 2003 holding various positions including prime minister and president. In the runoff election held on May 15, neither Erdogan nor his opponent, Kemal …

The Arab League meeting earlier this month was one of the more interesting in the last couple of decades, mostly due to the host, Saudi Arabia, using it for messaging the West, particularly on Israel and Syria. More recently, Riyadh has engaged in new diplomatic moves towards Canada, a country …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s win on 28 May extends his rule until 2028. Shortly after securing another term, which may have been his biggest political challenge, he addressed hundreds of thousands of people outside the presidential palace in Ankara. Erdogan announced that “the only winner today is Turkey” and …

The Middle East is experiencing a remarkable spate of diplomacy, de-escalation, and normalization. This started with the Abraham Accords between Israel and four Arab countries in 2020, the ending of the intra-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) crisis in 2021, and the revival of GCC-Turkey relations, and has extended to the Saudi-Iranian …

The Middle East is undergoing a historic transformation with unprecedented opportunities to build new relationships, de-escalate tensions, and foster conditions for stronger integration. At the same time, the region remains on edge because of ongoing tensions in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and other conflict zones, a civil war that broke out …

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered this January that his country carry out “exponential” expansion of its nuclear arsenal and the manufacturing of a more powerful ICBM. “Today, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran continue to invest in technologies to expand their capabilities to hit the United States with …

Middle Eastern violence has come to be associated with the area, which is rich in history and cultural variety. The area is gripped by an ongoing sequence of violence and political instability that seems to never stop, ranging from the current civil conflicts in Syria and Yemen to the long-running …

Turkey is a country that straddles two continents, Europe and Asia, and has a pivotal role in regional and international affairs. It is also a country that faces many challenges, both internally and externally, that shape its destiny and identity. In May 2023, Turkey held its presidential election, which resulted …

Lebanon has had no president since the departure from office of Michel Aoun in October last year, and the jockeying for position continues. Hezbollah and the Amal movement were banking on Christian division to push their candidate, Sulaiman Franjieh, but the Christian blocs surprised them by supporting the candidacy of …

The war in Syria has dropped out of the news, like almost everything else, in a time when the Ukraine war seems to dominate all discourse and reporting. But the regime of Bashar al-Assad continues to strangle its own country. Even last year the Russians continued to bomb on his …