Middle East

Every Street Corner is the Front Line in Mosul

By Mustafa Habib, NIQASH

Wisam al-Zubaidi is a member of one of Iraq’s elite counter-terrorism troops. But right now he isn’t fighting, he is in a Baghdad hospital nursing a bullet wound in his foot. At a battle east of Mosul, he and his battalion were ambushed by the extremist group known as the Islamic State, which Iraqi forces […]

A New Saudi Arabian Regional Policy

By Tancrède Fulconis

On November 29, 2016, the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center hosted the event “A New Saudi Arabian Regional Policy” featuring panelists Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, chairman of Shamal Investments and Mohammed Alyahya, nonresident fellow at the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. The discussion was moderated by Hariri Center Director Ambassador Frederic […]

The Loss of Syria’s Children, and with Them, the Loss of Syria’s Future

By Saleem al-Omar

In the Gulf countries, we hear about people who do not possess citizenship, like the Bedoon of the Emirates. Because the country’s government does not recognize them as citizens, they do not grant them personal identity, travel documents, or citizenship. While this subject has been studied in the Gulf, there is a comparable situation in […]

Syrians’ Opinions about President-Elect Trump

By Hosam al-Jablawi

The recent American presidential election attracted a big following among Syrians of all different political orientations. Most Syrians considered the outcome of the election critical to the future of their country; as such, Syrians chose to root for a candidate based on his or her statements on the Syrian crisis. Overall, loyalists of the Syrian […]

Will Donald Trump Empower Strongmen in the Middle East?

US President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign policy will likely seek to support the “strongman vision” of authoritarian leaders in North Africa, said Karim Mezran, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. Mezran joined Elissa Miller, assistant director with the Hariri Center, for a Facebook Live discussion on the future […]

The Sequencing of Peace in Yemen

By Nabeel Khoury

In a last ditch effort by the Obama administration to salvage Yemen’s peace talks as the war grinds on, US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Oman twice this month, personally meeting with Houthi representative Mohammed Abdussalam. In a statement released after his second visit, Kerry welcomed a 48-hour ceasefire in Yemen, but not all parties appeared to […]

Lebanese Hezbollah Offers a Glimpse of its Firepower

By Nicholas Blanford

Lebanon’s militant Shi’ite Hezbollah displayed its new armored capabilities for the first time during a military parade in the Syrian town of Qusayr in Homs province, offering the most compelling example yet of the Iran-backed group’s adoption of conventional military tactics and equipment alongside its traditional low-signature asymmetric doctrine. The parade was held on November […]