With curated multimedia series focused on hard hitting issues such climate change as well as current events, MENASource seeks to explore all facets of life in the region as affected by political, security, economic, and cultural issues.

Of particular focus and interest are the minorities, women, and the youth populations across the region and how they are affected by the changing environments.

The views expressed in MENASource are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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Russian Policy toward Libya: The Egyptian Factor

MENASource
Sep 19, 2025

How Israel’s strike on Doha is forcing a Gulf security reckoning

The Gulf monarchies have displayed strong unity at a time when rethinking twenty-first-century Gulf security is no longer optional.

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Russian Policy toward Libya: The Egyptian Factor

MENASource
Sep 19, 2025

Snapback sanctions threaten to further derail Iran nuclear deal hopes

By
Rob Macaire

Now would be the best time for the West to negotiate a deal with Iran—but snapback sanctions threaten a derailing into further confrontation.

Economic Sanctions
Iran

Russian Policy toward Libya: The Egyptian Factor

MENASource
Sep 17, 2025

In landmark Syria elections, women still face electoral hurdles

By
Marie Forestier 

As the indirect electoral process begins, Syrian officials could take several steps to increase women’s chances in this process.

Civil Society
Democratic Transitions

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Content

MENASource

Mar 22, 2017

Russian Policy toward Libya: The Egyptian Factor

By Mark N. Katz

A great deal of media attention to Russian involvement in Libya arose as a result of a March 14 Reuters report that Moscow “appears to have deployed special forces to an airbase in western Egypt near the border with Libya.” These forces, reportedly consisting of a 22-man unit, deployed to support General Khalifa Haftar, who […]

Libya North Africa

MENASource

Mar 20, 2017

Turkey Is in a Bind as Syria’s War Approaches its Final Chapter

By Aaron Stein

Russian and American action in Syria is fundamentally at odds with Turkish interests. The two international actors have both backed the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), in ways that harm Turkish interests. The PYD is the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an insurgent […]

Syria Turkey

MENASource

Mar 20, 2017

Libya, The Time to Avoid Escalation is Now

By Karim Mezran and Mattia Toaldo

Libya risks a new escalation and a deepening of the division between the eastern region under General Khalifa Haftar and the rest of the country nominally under the control of an ever-weaker UN-backed government headed by Fayez Serraj. On March 3, fighting started in the Oil Crescent, the part of Libya’s central coast where 60 […]

Libya

MENASource

Mar 15, 2017

While All Eyes On Mosul, Extremists Return To Other Iraqi Provinces

By Mustafa Habib

In the town of Baiji in central-northern Iraq, a senior police commander has been recording attacks by extremists – almost every day. “Before, extremist attacks were more rare,” the police chief, Saad al-Azzawi, told NIQASH. “But over the past few weeks, the numbers have increased in a very frightening way.

Iraq

MENASource

Mar 13, 2017

Priorities for Ending the Libyan Crisis

By Emily Burchfield

Former US Special Envoy to Libya, Ambassador Jonathan Winer spoke at a panel event on Libya at the Rafik Hariri Center on March 9, 2016 and gave a short interview afterwards describing the priorities for ending the Libyan crisis. Below is a summary of his comments and the Facebook Live interview. 

Libya

MENASource

Mar 13, 2017

Is Libya’s “Skhirat” Agreement Really Dead?

By Karim Mezran

The Benghazi Defense Brigades (BDB)’s recent successful offensive conducted against the Libyan National Army (LNA) in the Gulf of Sidra—in which it seized the oil ports and terminals of Ras Lanuf and Es Sider—leads one to consider its effects on the Skhirat agreement. This is the agreement that produced the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) and […]

Libya

MENASource

Mar 10, 2017

Saudi’s Purist Salafi Drive into Southeast Asia

By H.A. Hellyer

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud is currently engaged in a tour in Asia, which will last about a month. Five out of six of the countries he is visiting are Muslim majority nations (the sixth, China, has a significant and ancient Muslim minority population). While there is undoubtedly a financial and economic aspect […]

Saudi Arabia

MENASource

Mar 10, 2017

US Strikes on Al-Qaeda in Yemen Not Separate from Ongoing Civil War

By Jillian Schwedler

The United States has launched more than 40 air strikes since March 3 on suspected al-Qaeda sites in Yemen, more air strikes than all of 2016. The Trump administration hopes to boast of progress in stopping the advance of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has seen significant gains since the outbreak of Yemen’s […]

MENASource

Mar 9, 2017

Libya’s Profitable Business of War

By Mohamed Fouad and Emadeddin Muntasser

The collapse of the Libyan government under Gaddafi, exposed a lack of transparency and accountability that were part of Gaddafi’s oppressive and corrupt economy. The post-revolution political bickering weakened Libyan institutions further and left no clear system of governance or way of managing competition over Libyan oil, financial, and security sectors.

Libya

MENASource

Mar 7, 2017

LISTEN: Karim Mezran on Clashes in the Gulf of Sidra and Developments in Libya

By MENASource

Elissa Miller: My name is Elissa Miller, I’m an assistant director at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, and today I’m speaking with Dr. Karim Mezran, a senior fellow at the Hariri Center, about Libya.

Libya
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