Middle East Programs Commentary & Analysis

Our blogs feature thoughtful reflections and opinions on current events in the Middle East & North Africa.

Through our Middle East Programs, the Atlantic Council works with allies and partners in Europe and the wider Middle East to protect US interests, build peace and security, and unlock the human potential of the region.

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Meet our blogs

MENASource

MENASource follows movements across the region and provides news and analysis on current events, including a platform for Middle Eastern perspectives, among others, on major issues—economic, political, security, cultural—that are at stake in the post-Arab Spring era.  

IranSource

IranSource provides a holistic look at Iran’s internal dynamics, global and regional policies, and posture through unique analysis of current events and long-term, strategic issues related to Iran.

All commentary & analysis

MENASource

Feb 25, 2019

Expert analysis on Jared Kushner’s trip to the Middle East

By MENASource

Jared Kushner, senior adviser to the US President Donald Trump, is on his way to six countries in the Gulf states to discuss and present part of his long awaited Israel-Palestine peace process plan in private meetings with foreign diplomats. He is expected to visit Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Turkey over the next few days. While the plan is still held tightly secret, experts are speculating on the selection of countries Kushner is to visit and what that implies for the plan.

Middle East

MENASource

Feb 22, 2019

General Haftar’s offensive in the Fezzan region and the Italian-French competition

By Karim Mezran

The military forces under the command of General Khalifa Haftar launched a large-scale attack on the Fezzan region in January, with the aim of taking control of the main areas of local oil production.

Libya

SyriaSource

Feb 19, 2019

Syrian women detainees: reclaiming their lives and giving back

By Rana Riziq

Across Syria, thousands of men have been held captive by the Syrian government, some languishing for years in detention for their political activities, their refusal to join the army, or just by virtue of being related to people who oppose the dictatorship. Less talked about are the experiences of women who are arrested and held in captivity, raped and tortured, and the struggles they endure if they are eventually released. They can face unemployment, trauma, and even be shunned by segments of their communities.

Syria

IranSource

Feb 13, 2019

Trump’s Iran Policy: Much Ado About Nothing

By Pooya Dayanim

The Trump administration’s policy of containing and weakening the Islamic Republic of Iran may appear to be going well to causal observers of Iranian affairs, and there is some evidence to support such a view. The United States has withdrawn from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action […]

Iran

SyriaSource

Feb 13, 2019

Forced conscription continues despite amnesty by Syrian Government

By Hosam al-Jablawi

Since 2011, the Syrian regime has kept thousands of Syrian men in its military service as emergency forces—serving for an unspecified period—and refusing to discharge successive batches of army conscripts; some of whom have served for eight years in compulsory service. If they do not comply, they can be charged with a criminal offense and imprisoned for up to three years. In order to avoid fighting in the regime’s forces, Syrian youth have resorted to fleeing their country and the compulsory military service. Those who flee are considered military deserters according to Syrian law, and arrested if they return.

Syria

MENASource

Feb 13, 2019

Concerning Iran, the United States should go back to ‘speaking softly and carrying a big stick’

By Borzou Daragahi

Top officials of the administration of Donald J. Trump love to talk tough on Iran. Last year Trump warned in an all-capitals tweet that Iran “would suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before” if it threatened the US.  

Iran

New Atlanticist

Feb 12, 2019

What to expect from the US-Polish summit on the Middle East

By David A. Wemer

"The Trump administration waffled about the aims of the conference. But the truth is this conference is very much about Iran and a symbolic act to show that the world is united again Tehran—particularly Arab countries and Israel.

Financial Sanctions and Economic Coercion Iran

New Atlanticist

Feb 12, 2019

The US-Iranian relationship: let’s try engagement

By David A. Wemer

“I simply do not see the conditions for another revolution.” He saw “no evidence that there is a social base in Iran that wants to see a radical change," said Mohsen Milani, executive director of the University of South Florida’s Center for Strategic and Diplomatic Studies.

Financial Sanctions and Economic Coercion Iran

IranSource

Feb 8, 2019

Iran’s Revolution, 40 Years On: Israel’s Reverse Periphery Doctrine

By Natan Sachs

Iranian-Israeli hostility is actually quite odd. Tehran is well over a thousand miles from Jerusalem. The two countries do not border each other. They have no major bilateral claims toward one another. Whereas large Arab neighbors of Iran, like Iraq or Saudi Arabia, might be considered its natural competitors, Israel cannot. Even fans of the […]

Iran Israel

IranSource

Feb 8, 2019

The Islamic Republic’s foreign policy at forty

By Ariane M. Tabatabai

Forty years have passed since disparate groups of revolutionaries—many of them united only in their opposition to the Imperial State of Iran’s alignment with the United States—toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Since then, hundreds of American scholars and practitioners have attempted to understand the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy and how to best respond to the […]

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