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Iraqi government formation could be delayed until 2023

Location:

IRAQ

The support of two-thirds of the 329 MPs is needed to back a new government. However, neither of the two main factions can garner this level of support individually, resulting in…

Iranian influence will help prolong Yemen’s conflict

Location:

YEMEN

The strikes came after Huthi fighters claimed to have downed a Saudi Tornado jet with an advanced missile. Riyadh admitted “collateral damage” from its mission to rescue the…

Iran will attempt to maintain its leverage in Iraq

Location:

IRAQ/IRAN

The withdrawal plunged Iraqi politics into its deepest crisis since the war against Islamic State (IS) started in 2013. Moqtada al-Sadr’s failure to establish a majority…

Economic warfare in Yemen could boost piracy risk

Location:

YEMEN

Since it began in March 2015, the many-sided conflict has become internationalised, following threats to the vital shipping artery in the Bab al-Mandab strait, through which trade…

Water scarcity will boost Turkey-Syria-Iraq tensions

Location:

IRAQ/SYRIA/TURKEY

Large-scale water capture in Turkish dams upstream has caused long-term shortages elsewhere in the Tigris and Euphrates river basin, notably eastern Syria and southern Iraq…

Normalising Syrian-Turkish relations faces challenges

Location:

SYRIA/TURKEY

Turkey has dropped its insistence on regime change in Syria as it seeks to defuse a domestic crisis over Syrian refugees and to contain Kurdish aspirations. Normalisation could…

Syria will struggle to address acute energy shortages

Location:

SYRIA

This is part of a wider energy crisis that is also evident in the long queues outside petrol stations and in the difficulty that bakeries face in securing fuel, on top of the…

Syria reconstruction prospects may deteriorate further

Location:

SYRIA

In fact, ten years after that conflict started, with President Bashar al-Assad still in control of two-thirds of the country, no foreign state shows any sign of making a major…

US Huthi terror tag will complicate Yemeni-Saudi talks

Location:

YEMEN/SAUDI ARABIA

This comes days after the announcement of a new Saudi-backed power-sharing cabinet involving internationally recognised Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansur Hadi and southern…

North-east Syria’s frozen conflict will erode security

Location:

SYRIA

North-east Syria is divided into three zones: Damascus-controlled areas backed by Russia and Iran, SDF-held areas backed by the United States and territory dominated by the Syrian…