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In-Depth Coverage

Original Commentaries

07/02/09
The U.S. Pullout from Iraqi Cities  —
06/25/09
Understanding the Situation in Iran  —Geneive Abdo, fellow, The Century Foundation; former Iran correspondent, The Guardian (1998-2001)
06/23/09
Solving the Problem of the Old City  —Michael Bell, former Canadian ambassador to Egypt, Israel and Jordan; co-director, Jerusalem Old City Initiative, University of Windsor. Interview with Middle East Bulletin.

Setting the Record Straight

Potential Partner for Regional Stability

“As long as the current radical regime is in power in Damascus, there won’t be any negotiated peace even of the most superficial variety because the conflict is indispensible to the Syrian dictatorship. And the most probably type of change in Syria—though its likelihood is still low—to a radical Islamist regime would make any such peace even less likely.”
—Barry Rubin, director, Global Research in International Affairs Center, IDC Herzliya, “Peace on the Borderline,” The Rubin Report, May 31, 2009versus
  • “The al-Asad regime in Syria continues to play the dangerous game of allowing or accepting extremist networks and terrorist facilitators to operate from and through Syrian territory. ... However, unlike Iran, Syria’s motives probably stem from short-sighted calculations rather than ideology. It is possible that over time Syria could emerge as a partner in promoting security in the Levant and in the region.”
    —General David Petraeus, commander, U.S. Central Command, testimony to the House Armed Services Committee, “The Afghanistan-Pakistan Strategic Review and the Posture of U.S. Central Command,” April 2, 2009

    • Middle East Analysis

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    WATCH: Prospects for a Two-State Solution: Understanding Challenges and Creating Opportunities

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    Hopes Fade for Turkish Water as a Strategic Asset

    Gareth Jenkins (Eurasia Daily Monitor)
    April 9, 2008

    Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar Assad (AP)

    A recent report in the business daily Referans suggests that Turkey’s hopes of using its water resources as a strategic asset to strengthen its ties with the Middle East countries are likely to be frustrated. The latest figures suggest that as the result of a combination of population increase, poor resource management and decreased rainfall, Turkey is far from being a water-rich country but is now in danger of becoming a water-poor one, with barely enough water to meet its own needs.

    During the 1990s, Turkish government officials were fond of predicting that the country’s water would become a strategic resource, not only compensating for its limited reserves of hydrocarbons but–by supplying water to the countries of the Middle East–bolstering Turkey’s ambitions of becoming a regional superpower. The dams built on the Tigris and Euphrates as part of the $32 billion hydroelectric and irrigation Southeast Anatolia Project (GAP) had already given Turkey a stranglehold over the two main rivers flowing through Syria and Iraq. …

    After Turkey and Israel signed military training and defense industry cooperation agreements in 1996, there were also hopes that the rapprochement could be underpinned by Turkey supplying Israel with freshwater. … Particularly after the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in Turkey in November 2002, there was also talk of using the agreement with Israel as the basis for the construction of a “Peace Pipeline”, which would carry Turkish water not only to Israel but to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinians. …

    Even if it had been possible to persuade the various countries to bury their political differences, there had always been doubts about the economic feasibility of the water pipeline, which had been expected to take up to 15 years to build at a projected cost of $8 billion. It now also appears that, regardless of political and economic considerations, Turkey simply does not have the water to spare. Access the full article>>