MENASource brings you up-close to a region at the epicenter of geo-political headlines. It is the Atlantic Council’s hub for in-depth commentary about breaking news, key topics, and trends from our team of experts on the Middle East and North Africa.

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

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EconSource: Saudi Arabia Rules Out Production Cuts

MENASource
Jan 14, 2026

Voices from Iran: As rejection of government reaches all-time high, Iranians also wary of foreign intervention

If Trump is serious about peace, stability, and a lasting legacy, the path forward does not run through air strikes or transactional deals with a failing theocracy.

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EconSource: Saudi Arabia Rules Out Production Cuts

MENASource
Jan 13, 2026

Eight questions (and expert answers) on the SDF’s withdrawal from Syria’s Aleppo

By
Atlantic Council experts

Our experts unpack why violence erupted, what it means for Kurdish safety and integration in Syria, and how Washington is engaging.

Civil Society
Conflict

EconSource: Saudi Arabia Rules Out Production Cuts

MENASource
Jan 12, 2026

The Venezuela-Iran connection and what Maduro’s capture means for Tehran, explained 

By
Joze Pelayo, Kirsten Fontenrose, Ellie Sennett 

Our experts break down Iran’s ties to Venezuela and the impact Maduro’s capture could have on Tehran’s interests in and outside of its own borders. 

Iran
Oil and Gas

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Content

MENASource

Feb 24, 2016

EconSource: Saudi Arabia Rules Out Production Cuts

By EconSource

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said Tuesday he was confident that more countries would join an agreement to freeze oil output at existing levels in talks expected in March. However, he effectively ruled out production cuts by major crude producers anytime soon.

MENASource

Feb 24, 2016

Top News: Italian Student May Have Been Killed for Revenge Says Interior Ministry

By EgyptSource

Egypt’s Interior Ministry says investigators believe that “personal reasons” were behind the torture and murder of the Italian student Giulio Regeni, whose body was found in Cairo this month, over a week after he went missing. The ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that investigation had uncovered no clues to culprits but said “the […]

MENASource

Feb 24, 2016

Mitigating US-Turkish Disagreement over the PYD

By Francis Ricciardone and Aaron Stein

Turkey and the United States share strategic interests regarding Syria, not least defeating the threat posed by the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL). However, they remain at odds over their definitions of their full strategic purposes. One element is ripe for resolution: clarifying their respective intents toward the Kurdish communities of Syria, while revising their […]

Syria
Turkey

MENASource

Feb 23, 2016

Top News: UK, Turkey, Assad, and opposition skeptical over ceasefire

By MENASource

Syria’s regime agreed Tuesday to a ceasefire deal announced by the United States and Russia, but there were widespread doubts it could take effect by Saturday as planned. The State Department made the five-page plan public after Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone Monday.

MENASource

Feb 23, 2016

EconSource: Islamic State Rigs Currency Rates in Mosul to Prop Up Finances

By EconSource

Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) militants in the Iraqi city of Mosul are manipulating the exchange rate between US dollars and Iraqi dinars as the US-led anti-ISIS coalition attacks the group’s finances.

MENASource

Feb 23, 2016

Top News: Conflicting Accounts in Case of 4-Year-Old Sentenced to Life in Prison

By EgyptSource

Denying a flurry of media reports to the contrary, the Armed Forces released a statement Monday declaring that a 4-year-old boy has not been sentenced to life in prison by a military court, but rather a 16-year-old boy of a similar name. On February 16, a military court sentenced 116 people to life in prison […]

MENASource

Feb 22, 2016

Top News: ISIS bombings kill nearly 130 people in Syria

By MENASource

Bombings claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) in the Syrian cities of Damascus and Homs killed nearly 130 people on Sunday. A series of blasts ripped through the Sayyida Zeinab suburb of Damascus, killing at least 83 people and wounding more than 170, the official SANA news agency said.

MENASource

Feb 22, 2016

Top News: Novelist Ahmed Naji Handed Two Years in Prison After Initial Acquittal

By EgyptSource

An Egyptian court has sentenced an author to two years in jail for public indecency after excerpts of his sexually explicit novel were published in a literary newspaper. A chapter from Ahmed Naji’s novel Istikhdam al-Hayat, or Using Life, was serialized in a state-owned literary newspaper and a case was brought against him last year […]

North Africa
Political Reform

MENASource

Feb 22, 2016

EconSource: IMF Says Confident Gulf Oil Exporters Can Adjust, Urges Taxes

By EconSource

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde said Monday that she is confident the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies can implement the large fiscal adjustments they need to cope with low oil prices.

MENASource

Feb 22, 2016

Libya and the West: Intervention without a Cause?

By Karim Mezran and Arturo Varvelli

The premise at the base of any armed intervention is to have a clear political aim. An intervention, therefore, must be assessed in terms of modalities and opportunities—an obvious yet often neglected principle. US, Italian, French, and British spokespersons over the last few weeks expressed a desire to intervene in Libya. The two main reasons […]

Libya
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