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Jan 2, 2024 | 
thearabweekly.com | Faisal Al Yafai
Even well into 2022, long after the war in Ukraine had started, the media were still “reporting the last war,” so to speak. The New Yorker headlined a report on the Bayraktar TB2 drone that was widely considered to have won the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, “The Turkish Drone That Changed the Nature of Warfare.”Little wonder, because the TB2 had proved formidable beyond its size, an unmanned drone that carried laser-guided bombs.
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Dec 29, 2023 | 
asiatimes.com | Faisal Al Yafai
Even well into 2022, long after the war in Ukraine had started, the media were still “reporting the last war,” so to speak. The New Yorker headlined a report on the Bayraktar TB2 drone that was widely considered to have won the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, “The Turkish drone that changed the nature of warfare.”Little wonder, because the TB2 had proved formidable beyond its size, an unmanned drone that carried laser-guided bombs.
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Dec 21, 2023 | 
syndicationbureau.com | Faisal Al Yafai |Rym Ghazal |Aditya Sinha |Afshin Molavi
As the COP28 climate conference wrapped up in the United Arab Emirates last week, international observers were focused on the outcome of the talks, with good reason. The fate of humanity hangs in the balance. But just off stage, regional analysts were absorbed in a related issue that will hinder efforts to implement any plan to save the planet. Call it the geopolitics of climate action, and Syria was exhibit A.
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Dec 16, 2023 | 
jordannews.jo | Faisal Al Yafai
Fromthe start of the Ukraine invasion, Vladimir Putin has understood that Russiaretains one immeasurable advantage: time. The sheer size of the Russianlandmass, population, and economy, as well as Putin’s iron grip over thecountry's politics, means that the war could churn on for weeks, months, oreven years without causing government-altering pain in Moscow.
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Dec 6, 2023 | 
asiatimes.com | Faisal Al Yafai
From the start of the Ukraine invasion, Vladimir Putin has understood that Russia retains one immeasurable advantage: time. The sheer size of the Russian landmass, population and economy, as well as Putin’s iron grip over the country’s politics, means that the war could churn on for weeks, months or even years without causing government-altering pain in Moscow.
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Dec 4, 2023 | 
syndicationbureau.com | Joseph Dana |Faisal Al Yafai |Yun Sun |Robin Mills
Since the Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing military campaign in Gaza, Israel has found itself the target of missiles and drones fired by Iranian-backed groups from various points in the Middle East. While there has not been a full-scale escalation from groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, the attacks, many of which have been intercepted, have served as a warning of what Israel’s enemies in the region have at their disposal.
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Nov 23, 2023 | 
asiatimes.com | Faisal Al Yafai
Last week’s Manama Dialogue in Bahrain was the first chance for a wider discussion between Americans, the primary international backers of the war still raging in Gaza, and the wider Middle East, which will have to deal with the consequences of that conflict. It didn’t go well. If US President Joe Biden’s administration, which sent its top Middle East adviser Brett McGurk, had hoped Arab allies could be persuaded by the hardline approach it is pursuing, it was disappointed.
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Nov 18, 2023 | 
syndicationbureau.com | Gedaliah Afterman |Faisal Al Yafai |Joseph Dana |Aditya Sinha
Repercussions from Hamas’ October 7 attack continue to reverberate beyond Israel’s borders. In Syria, skirmishes between Iranian-backed militias, Israeli forces, and American troops are complicating efforts to contain the fighting. But as diplomats from Doha to Downing Street race to prevent a wider war, Russia, a key Syrian ally, has been conspicuously quiet. For Moscow, chaos may be a means to an end. After decades of relative calm, fighting along Syria’s southern border with Israel has returned.
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Nov 16, 2023 | 
montereycountyweekly.com | Faisal Al Yafai
With the war in Gaza reverberating around the world, it is hard to hear anything above the noise. Yet an interview with Ukraine’s commander-in-chief last week came through loud and clear, sparking both an internal crisis in Kyiv and an international debate on the future of the conflict. General Valery Zaluzhny is the man leading the Ukrainian war against Russia’s invasion. For him to voice publicly that the fighting had reached a stalemate was astonishing.
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Nov 13, 2023 | 
thearabweekly.com | Faisal Al Yafai
With the war in Gaza reverberating around the world, it is hard to hear anything above the noise. Yet an interview with Ukraine’s commander-in-chief last week came through loud and clear, sparking both an internal crisis in Kyiv and an international debate on the future of the conflict. General Valery Zaluzhny is the man leading the Ukrainian war against Russia’s invasion. For him to voice publicly that the fighting had reached a stalemate was astonishing, even shocking.
