Taylor Luck

Amman, Aroumd

Freelance Writer at Freelance

Middle East Correspondent at The Christian Science Monitor

The non-Swift Taylor. @csmonitor Middle East North Africa correspondent. Journalist. Analyst. Hoper of Far-Flung Hopes. https://t.co/BdtOxwEdbs

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Articles

Jordan wants to avoid proxy war. Banning the Muslim Brotherhood just made it harder.

2 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Taylor Luck

As its neighbors in the Middle East have been plunged into regional conflict, Jordan has stood as a rare, neutral stronghold of peace, resisting being dragged into proxy war. But Israel’s continued war in Gaza has put new pressure on the Arab kingdom, with members of Hamas calling on like-minded allies in Jordan to open a front against Israel.
Iraqis hope for an era of peace. Their neighbors hold the key.

3 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Taylor Luck

As U.S.-Iran nuclear talks enter a second week and low-level talks begin between Turkey and Kurdish separatists, a cautious optimism is taking hold in Iraq. The country has long been caught in the middle of regional wars and geopolitical tensions. But there is hope here that should these talks succeed, an era of global and regional powers fighting their conflicts on Iraqi soil could finally come to an end.
Syria’s new flag is everywhere: ‘Everyone wants to touch freedom’

1 month ago | csmonitor.com | Taylor Luck

| With scarves and capes, caps and pendants, Syrians everywhere are wrapping themselves up in the new national colors. After years of being illegal in much of the country, the “free Syria” flag – a green-white-black tricolor banner adorned with three red stars – flies in Damascus. Yet the new flag is more than a national symbol. Syrians say what was for years the opposition flag is now an embodiment of the hardships of the revolution and the joy of their newfound freedoms. Why We Wrote This A...
In Syria, Palestinians’ war-shattered camp is a ruin. But it’s home.

1 month ago | csmonitor.com | Taylor Luck

As soon as the dictator was out, Samer Jalbout was on the move. Within 24 hours of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s fall in early December, Mr. Jalbout was en route from Idlib in northwest Syria, heading back to his home in the Yarmouk refugee camp outside Damascus. The father of three had not been there since pro-Assad forces drove his family out seven years ago. What he found was a concrete wasteland.
‘A chance to build’: How Syrian civil society is making the country work

1 month ago | csmonitor.com | Taylor Luck

When the Bashar al-Assad regime fell, Ameen Baddran knew whom to call. Immediately, the longtime activist got on the phone with other community members in his native Douma, outside Damascus. They decided to step in and form a local council, which arranged garbage pickup, rubble-clearing, and interim policing.
Arab world unites on Gaza. Can it get US, Israel, and Hamas on board?

2 months ago | csmonitor.com | Taylor Luck |Ghada Abdulfattah

An alternative to U.S. President Donald Trump’s regionally reviled plan for Gaza’s reconstruction is gaining widespread buy-in across the region, and among Palestinians and Europeans. The Arab world’s own plan, dubbed “Gaza 2030,” entails a $53 billion reconstruction program and a new governing entity for the enclave. The three rather sizable challenges? Getting the United States on board, getting Israel on board, and tackling the thorny outstanding issue of Hamas’ arms.
Deadly clashes in Syria are precisely what new leaders sought to avert

2 months ago | csmonitor.com | Taylor Luck |Dominique Soguel

An insurgency by gunmen loyal to the ousted government of Bashar al-Assad and a wave of sectarian revenge killings are threatening to transform Syria from a cautious success story to the Middle East’s next crisis. They are threatening both the country’s postwar reconstruction as well as the hard-line Islamist government’s strained ties with a skeptical West.
As Syrians struggle to rebuild, old US sanctions are a daunting hurdle

2 months ago | csmonitor.com | Taylor Luck

As he does most days, Taha Hader tours the ruins of the dream home he hopes to rebuild, stepping gingerly over the concrete shards that once were his neighborhood. The community was leveled by barrel-bombs and stripped clean of metals by the army of former dictator Bashar al-Assad. In the weeks since Mr. Assad was toppled Dec. 8, Mr. Hader has returned from exile in Idlib, in northwest Syria, to his hometown of Darayya, south of Damascus.
Amid Gaza ceasefire’s uncertainty, Palestinians focus on survival

2 months ago | csmonitor.com | Ghada Abdulfattah |Taylor Luck

With a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire hanging by a thread, Palestinians in Gaza are scrambling for certainty and survival. Even as residents returning to bombed-out communities struggled to clear space for their tents amid the rubble, a war of words between Hamas and Israel continued Tuesday over the second phase of a ceasefire that had been due to begin Sunday.
For Syria’s religious minorities, new freedoms, yet lingering insecurity

2 months ago | csmonitor.com | Taylor Luck

Ten weeks after a Sunni Islamist group took over Syria, the country’s rich religious diversity is on display at nearly every turn. In the northern area of Homs, the distinctive call to prayer rings out from 35 mosques belonging to the minority, Shiite-affiliated Alawite sect. Last week, Jewish Syrians returned to their Damascus neighborhood and held public prayers in a synagogue for the first time in decades.