Search results

Prospects for the Middle East in 2023

Location:

PROSPECTS 2023

Prospects for the Middle East in 2023.

Shia and Kurdish forces may clash on Iraq-Syria border

Location:

IRAQ/SYRIA

The pro-Iranian Badr Organisation is one of the larger PMUs -- groups of mostly Shia armed volunteers established in 2014 to help the army fight IS. They launched a new offensive…

Intra-communal divisions will plague post-IS Iraq

Location:

IRAQ

However, the successful fight against IS has not forged a new sense of unity among Iraq’s communities; instead, it has solidified some divides and created conditions for future…

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…

Iraqi Kurdish independence vote risks new conflict

Location:

IRAQ

KRI President Massoud Barzani, who announced the initiative in February, has stressed that the result will be non-binding; however, his move has unsettled allies in Ankara and…

Kurds will try to keep Iraq out of the Gaza conflict

Location:

IRAQ

The Gaza conflict has led to a resurgence of attacks by Iran-backed armed groups on US forces, breaking the earlier unofficial truce. Some of those attacks have targeted bases in…

Relations between Iraqi and Syrian Kurds worsen

Location:

SYRIA/IRAQ

This is part of a wider rift between Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Syrian Kurdish forces, the latter divided among themselves. The KRG closed two border…

Middle East Kurds may become more risk-averse

Location:

MIDDLE EAST

Prospects for Kurdish nationalism.

Turkey will shift focus to Kurdish guerrillas in Iraq

Location:

TURKEY

Since the breakdown of the peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in July 2016, Erdogan’s policy of all-out violence has to outward appearances smashed the Kurds’…

Syria players’ next steps hinge on US withdrawal plans

Location:

SYRIA

Confusion still reigns over US military policy on Syria two months after US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a withdrawal. Washington is seeking a deal between Kurdish…