James M. Dorsey discusses on Radio Islam International the enormous challenges Syria confronts in the wake of the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad.

Syria faces enormous challenges

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s fall has seemingly turbocharged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman dreams.

Turkey dreams of a neo-Ottoman Middle East

Much like Hezbollah miscalculated with its 15-month-long war of attrition against Israel, Yemen’s Houthi rebels risk being the next target in Israel’s campaign to rewrite the Middle East’s political map.
“We will act with strength, determination, and ingenuity. Even if it takes time, the result will be the same as with other terrorist arms,” said Prime Mi Netanyahu said on Monday.
Some Israelis suggest that to effectively target the Houthis, Israel should simultaneously emasculate Iran, already on the defensive because of the loss of ousted President Bashar al Assad’s Syria, the weakening of Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah, and severe Israeli damage inflicted on the Islamic Republic’s air defenses.


Israel’s Middle East war-Yemen definitely next, maybe Iran too

Once viewed as a breeder of religious extremism, Saudi Arabia earned brownie points as the international community sighed a sigh of relief when Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, substantially reduced global funding of ultra-conservative strands of Islam and started to propagate a socially more relaxed interpretation of the faith.
Almost a decade later, the benefits of the change far outweigh the costs.


Saudi Arabia balances ‘tolerance’ with support for ultra-conservatives in conflict zones

The new leadership in Syria has dispatched officials to Saudi Arabia, for the first official visit outside the country. The delegation is being led by Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani, the defense minister and the head of intelligence services. James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, discusses the importance of the Syrian government's efforts to rebuild ties with Arab nations.

How important is the Syrian Foreign Minister's first overseas visit to Saudi Arabia_TRT 02012025

Israel’s demolition of the ill-equipped Syrian military and the recent occupation of additional Syrian territory beyond the Golan Heights it conquered in the 1967 Middle East war is just one obstacle.
So is a daunting list of challenges that, if unresolved, threaten the new Syrian rulers’ ability to rebuild an economy ravaged by 14 years of civil war and, potentially, the country’s territorial integrity. 
The challenges include Turkey’s military presence in northern Syria, fighting between a pro-Turkish militia and Syrian Kurds, differences over whether Syria should be a centralised state or a federation, the failure of large numbers of Al-Assad conscripts to turn in their weapons despite being promised amnesty, and concerns about the place of religious minorities in the future Syria.


Putting Humpty Dumpty together in Syria

Israel’s once-vaunted military faces an uncertain future.
Not just because the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is set to judge Israel's Gaza war conduct and the issuance by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of arrest warrants for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
But also due to assertions that the military is unable or unwilling to enforce discipline, questioning of the military’s capacity to investigate itself, a long-held US-supported holy grail of the military’s self-perception as “the world’s most moral army,” and the rise of an officer corps infused by religious ultra-nationalism.
In addition, several recent books by Israeli veterans of the Gaza war belie the military’s moral claim and document the traumatic fallout of Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, as well as 15 months of combat in the Strip.

Israel’s Military Has A Crisis Even If It Refuses To Admit It

With Donald j. Trump two weeks away from returning to the White House, Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) fear that recent setbacks could open a Pandora’s box.
Israel’s puncturing of Swiss cheese-sized holes in the Iran-backed Axis of Resistance has upended the Islamic Republic’s forward defence strategy, raised questions about the future of the IRGC’s Quds Force, its foreign operations arm, and risks turning Iran into a tradeable geopolitical commodity.

Iran Fears Setback May Open A Pandora’s Box

Saudi Arabia brings out the worst in the world of international sports in terms of politics and greed. 

FIFA’s awarding Saudi Arabia the 2034 World Cup hosting rights is just the tip of the iceberg.

The awarding violated the world soccer body’s human rights policy and mocked the sports world’s fiction that sports and politics are separate rather than Siamese twins joined at the hip.

The Olympic Council of Asia’s earlier awarding of the 2029 Asian Winter Games to Saudi Arabia, even though the kingdom lacks a qualifying winter season and intends to hold the tournament in a troubled mega science fiction project that is under construction, is another example of politics and money trumping sports.


Saudi Arabia and international sports, a tale of politics and greed

Decimating Hezbollah and ousting President Bashar al-Assad were the first steps in a Middle Eastern power struggle that is likely to define not only who wields the most influence in Syria but also who will emerge as regional hegemons. 
Turkey, Israel, and Iran are prime candidates, with countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar playing catch up, at least in Syria.
The line-up in Syria reflects the likely longer-term divvying up of influence regionally in a complex jigsaw puzzle. 


The Middle East’s New Jigsaw Puzzle

Dr. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and co-host of the New Books in Middle Eastern Studies podcast. James is the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog, a book with the same title as well as Comparative Political Transitions between Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, co-authored with Dr. Teresita Cruz-Del Rosario and  Shifting Sands, Essays on Sports and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa.

The Middle East’s New Jigsaw Puzzle

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