MENASource

As the MENA region continues to be the epicenter of news headlines, the Atlantic Council’s MENASource is a hub for thought-provoking and hard-hitting analyses about the latest trends, ideas, and debates. This online publication provides fast reactions and in-depth commentary on breaking news and key regional topics by a diverse team of experts and contributors.

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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Point/Counterpoint: Is the Polisario a Legitimate Broker in Western Sahara?

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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Point/Counterpoint: Is the Polisario a Legitimate Broker in Western Sahara?

MENASource
Jan 28, 2026

Trump’s National Security Strategy doesn’t downgrade the Middle East, it redefines it

By
Kristian Alexander

Trump’s strategy is a sophisticated refinement of “America First.” For the Gulf, the implications are significant, but manageable.

Middle East
National Security

Point/Counterpoint: Is the Polisario a Legitimate Broker in Western Sahara?

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

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Content

MENASource

Nov 21, 2013

Point/Counterpoint: Is the Polisario a Legitimate Broker in Western Sahara?

By Mehrunisa Qayyum & Nabil Ouchagour

On the eve of Moroccan King Mohamed VI’s visit to the United States, observers of Moroccan-US relations are keeping a close eye on the first high-level visit between the two countries’ leaders since US President Barack Obama took office.

North Africa

MENASource

Nov 20, 2013

Top News: Jordanians Charged with Terrorism Over Campus Clashes

By MENASource

Jordanian military prosecutors on Wednesday charged fifteen men, including students, with carrying out “terrorist acts” over clashes on a university campus that injured four people, a judicial official said.

MENASource

Nov 20, 2013

Top News: Car Bomb Kills Twelve Soldiers in Sinai

By EgyptSource

Twelve soldiers were killed, and at least thirty others wounded, in a car bombing incident in Kharouba near Arish, North Sinai, on Wednesday morning. Assailants also attacked a police checkpoint in eastern Cairo in the early hours of Wednesday morning, injuring four policemen with a homemade bomb. 

MENASource

Nov 20, 2013

Jordan: A Model for Reform or a Black Hole?

By Amani Al-Khatahtbeh

Jordanians affectionately refer to their country as “the black hole of the Middle East” for a reason. For any native, underneath all the presumptuous assertions that “I don’t fear the mukhabarat! I’m not afraid to speak my mind in this country,” and “We have freedom of speech—the government wouldn’t do anything to harm us,” there […]

Middle East

MENASource

Nov 19, 2013

Top News: Russia Strikes Missile Deal with Egypt

The head of Russia’s state-controlled industrial holding company says Moscow has signed a deal to provide Egypt with air defense missile systems. Monday’s statement by Russian Technologies chief Sergei Chemezov followed last week’s trip to Egypt by Russia’s foreign and defense ministries.

MENASource

Nov 19, 2013

Lina Attalah on the Sisi Mania in Egypt

By MENASource

The hypernationalism that has taken hold in Egypt centers around the oft-touted Nasser-like saviour of a nation, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. One can hardly to walk the streets of Cairo without catching some glimpse of homage paid to the General in the form of chocolates, posters, or even provactive internet videos.

North Africa

MENASource

Nov 19, 2013

Happy Birthday, General

By Lina Attalah

“Where else have you seen Sisi today?” This is the question around which Sisi Fetish, a new contribution to Egypt’s thriving landscape of political satire, was born. The blog sheds light on how the popularity of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, commander in chief of Egypt’s Armed Forces, is expressing itself these days in a variety of quotidian […]

North Africa

MENASource

Nov 19, 2013

Top News: Mohamed Mahmoud Protests Continue Amid Minor Clashes

By EgyptSource

Mild clashes broke out between supporters of the army-backed government and their opponents near Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Tuesday. Scores of protesters began gathering around Cairo’s Tahrir Square early Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of anti-army protests in 2011.

MENASource

Nov 19, 2013

Libya: Enough is Enough

By Karim Mezran

The horrible carnage that ravaged Tripoli over the weekend was the latest in a series of escalating violence. Assassinations, abductions, and other crimes have plagued Libya’s cities over the last two years since the country’s liberation from dictatorship.

Libya

MENASource

Nov 19, 2013

In Memory of Mohamed Mahmoud: Nothing Left to Do but Look

By Wael Eskandar

Even I cannot comprehend it; these ordinary people, extraordinary in their bravery, fighting off the gruesome beasts of an ugly regime that refuses to die. Two years ago, these ordinary people, these protesters took to a street off of Tahrir Square, facing security forces for four days in some of the most brutal clashes the […]

North Africa
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