J. Dana Stuster is the deputy foreign policy editor for Lawfare. He also co-authors the Five-Minute MENA Update, a daily newsletter about the Middle East, with Biff Parker-Magyar. He worked previously as a policy analyst at the National Security Network and an assistant editor at Foreign Policy magazine.
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The U.S. military shot down a Syrian bomber on Sunday, Qatar is reconsidering its support for Hamas while continuing to fight it out in the editorial pages, and the United States is supplying the Saudi air campaign in Yemen again.
Qatar looks for ways to circumvent the Saudi blockade, the Syrian Democratic Forces approach Raqqa’s Old City, and the Islamic State hits two targets in Tehran.
Saudi Arabia escalates its renewed spat with Qatar, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces coalition is pushing into the Islamic State’s de facto capital, and Germany and Turkey can’t resolve their diplomatic feud.
The U.S. endgame in eastern Syria looks difficult to defend, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are fighting again after a two-year detente, and Egypt and Britain are watching Libya warily.
Donald Trump visited Saudi Arabia over the weekend on his first foreign trip as president, while U.S. coalition forces in Syria bombed pro-Assad forces.
Russia proposes “de-escalation zones” to reduce fighting in Syria, the UAE and Yemeni governments are feuding within the Saudi-led coalition to fight the Houthis, and Iran’s election highlights criticisms of the intervention in Syria.
Turkey arrests more political opponents and bombs Kurds in Iraq and Syria, the transnational drama of an Iraqi hostage crisis, and will or won’t the Saudis try to capture Hodeida?