Josef Olmert

1 month ago | fairobserver.com | Gary Grappo |Atul Singh |Josef Olmert |Roberta Artemisia Campani

Atul Singh: Welcome to FO° Talks. With me is Gary Grappo. He’s the former chair of Fair Observer. He has been an ambassador for the US. He has had a glorious diplomatic career spanning many decades in many countries. He speaks many languages, and few people have a more nuanced view on geopolitics than Gary. And so without further ado, Gary and I are going to dive into the new geopolitical landscape of the Middle East. Gary, welcome.

1 month ago | fairobserver.com | Josef Olmert |Atul Singh |Flavius Mihaies |Jean-Daniel Ruch

[This is the fourth part of a nine-part series. To read more, see Parts 1, 2 and 3 here.]The collapse of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship in December 2024 is a loss for both the Iranian regime and its strategy, known as the Shia Crescent. This is a territory that stretches from Iran to the Lebanese–Israeli border at Golan through Iraq and Syria. Through the Shia Crescent Iran sought to encircle and destroy Israel and spread Shia Islam throughout the Middle East.

1 month ago | fairobserver.com | Thomas Greminger |Atul Singh |Josef Olmert |Flavius Mihaies

Atul Singh: Welcome to FO° Talks. With me is Thomas Greminger. He is the head of this Geneva Centre for Security Policy. He is one of Switzerland’s star diplomats. He is a scholar, a soldier and a man of the world. Welcome, Thomas. Thomas Greminger: Thank you very much, Atul. Great to be with you again. Atul Singh: Brilliant. So this is a brave new world we are living in. We are recording this on Monday, 17th of March, and in 2025, how do you see this brave new world in which we find ourselves in?

1 month ago | fairobserver.com | Josef Olmert |Flavius Mihaies |Jean-Daniel Ruch |Atul Singh

[This is the third part of a nine-part series. To read more, see Parts 1 and 2 here.]Approximately two million Kurds live in Syria, predominantly in the northeastern region near Iraq and Turkey. During the country’s ongoing civil war, which began in 2011, Kurdish groups established an autonomous polity in the area, dubbed the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, Rojava. Turkey is also home to a sizable Kurdish minority.

1 month ago | fairobserver.com | Josef Olmert |Flavius Mihaies |Jean-Daniel Ruch |Atul Singh

[This is the second part of a nine-part series. To read more, see Part 1 here.]The second part of this series focuses on a dominant political force in Syria: Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). In Arabic, the acronym HTS signifies a powerful entity that is currently shaping the nation’s dynamics in Syria. To understand its significance, we must explore the historical and geopolitical context of its name.