| 21 June 2020 – The Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis has produced new reports looking at recent developments in Iraq and Libya. Events move fast in this region and the last weeks have seen another half-dozen rocket attacks targeting areas where US personnel are located in Iraq, as well as a new Turkish military operation in northern Iraq and threats by Egypt to intervene in Libya if Turkey doesn’t halt its advance there. In addition there are growing reports of insurgency in southern Syria and tensions in Idlib. In Israel talk of annexation also means tensions in the West Bank and Jordan. Click on the links below to see our latest research:
Jonathan Spyer writes on the growing chaos and tensions in southern Syria’s Daraa province. See his report at this link. Also read his new report at The Jerusalem Post which looks at new challenges to the Assad regime in Syria. Taken together it appears Damascus is facing a struggle on both the economic and security front.
In Iraq Kareem Botane has conducted exclusive and important interviews about security reform and rooting out corruption amid the US-Iraq strategic dialogue. Read his report here. At MECRA we cover daily US-Iran tensions in the region via our updated timeline, check it out here.
Seth J. Frantzman, writing at Foreign Policy looks at how Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi must try to rein in Iraq’s plethora of overlapping security forces. Also at Bloomberg, Frantzman has a new piece examining how the US continues to play a key role to keep ISIS defeated regionally. Turkey’s role in the region is also rapidly expanding, from operations in Syria to Libya and Iraq. Daily crises appear to be erupting. At The Daily Beast Seth Frantzman argues that this trend is concerning. it also means that the US is being pressured to take a more active role in Libya as other countries, such as Turkey, Egypt, the UAE, France and Italy all continue to face off in the Mediterranean. See our piece at The Hill about the US-Russia tensions in Libya.
For interview requests email us: mecra@mideastcenter.org |