Summary: roughly a quarter of countries in the Arab League, including currently suspended member Syria, are suffering from currency depreciation, a US dollar shortage and rising debt levels. Issues are being compounded by surging inflation, while in some countries (in)formal capital controls and sanctions are impacting trade and debt repayments.
Summary: the fighting in Libya may have all but ended in 2022 but that may be the calm before a coming storm as contestation grows over gas rights in the eastern Mediterranean.
Summary: Israel is positioning itself well when it comes to exploiting natural resources in the Middle East.
Summary: a string of lawsuits in the UK and USA allege the global law firm Dechert LLP and former top lawyers were involved in serious criminal activity in the United Arab Emirates.
Number 3 in the top ten is a podcast that aired 28 May 2021. It featured Aslı Aydıntaşbaş and Cinzia Bianco. Aslı is a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and Cinzia is a Visiting Fellow at the Council. They co-authored the paper, “Useful Enemies – How the Turkey-UAE rivalry is remaking the Middle East”.
Our podcast Cairo and Ankara: a new axis? ranks number 7 in the Arab Digest top ten podcast list. It was released 18 June 2021 and features Ali Bakir, a research assistant professor at Ibn Khaldoon center for Humanities and Social Sciences in Doha. Ali is an analyst following geopolitical and security trends in the Middle East, and especially those between Turkey and the Arab world. His conversation with Digest editor William Law focussed on the thaw in relations between Cairo and Ankara.
This podcast conversation aired 14 May 2021 as violence flared in the wake of Israeli security forces actions at Al Aqsa mosque and the attempted eviction of Palestinians from their homes in the East Jerusalem quarter of Sheikh Jarrah. Jordan’s Prince Hassan has long advocated on behalf of interfaith and humanitarian issues with particular stress on the human dimension of conflicts.
Summary: MbS paying Jared Kushner US$2 billion and the UAE hacking the UK Prime Minister’s office attracts little comment from Western policymakers.
Summary: the 1948 bombing of a hotel in an Arab neighbourhood of Jerusalem killed 24 civilians and drove the community out; a descendent of one of those forced to flee investigates a largely forgotten act of ethnic cleansing.
Summary: after months of negotiations a new Libyan government has emerged but massive corruption and personal ambitions may once again stymy efforts to rebuild a war-shattered country.
