Several countries in the MENA region have been facing financial crises of unprecedented gravity. The MENA Commission on Stabilization and Growth Report describes how debt ratios started rising after the Arab Uprisings as fiscal policies became more expansionary, and how this was further precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine war, and the rise in global interest rates. The financial crises are especially acute in Lebanon, Egypt, and Tunisia, where external shocks have exacerbated deeply embedded structural weaknesses.
It has almost become a truism about Middle East politics that cooperation on behalf of a better future for this tumultuous region will continue to remain elusive and out of reach. Recent stalled talks in Vienna to bring the United States back into the nuclear deal with Iran (and Iran back into compliance with the deal), reinforce this negative bias, as do dashed hopes for settlements in the civil wars in Yemen and Libya.
Can Russia remove al-Assad regime’s security services in Syria?
Vladimir Putin visits the Russian Armed Forces Command Center in Syria- 7 January 2020 (the official account of the Syrian Presidency)
Enab Baladi-Amal Rantisi
The surprise visit of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to Damascus, on 7 January 2020, shocked Syrians because security services were not informed of the visit’s details, or the security preparations that preceded it.
The Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, revealed the security plan drawn up for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Damascus back then, Russian broadcaster RT reported.
Gerasimov said, “it was decided to publicize the visit as if it were for Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, not President Putin.”