ORSAM-Center for Middle Eastern Studies

Sistani versus Khamenei on Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha’abi
OPINION
On 18 March 2020, it was claimed that the militia groups affiliated with Iraq’s top Shi’a cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, had been separated from the Shi’a militia umbrella group, the Hashd al-Sha’abi or Popular...
Saudi Arabia’s Deceitful Game in Yemen
OPINION
The first three months of 2020 has witnessed multiple military escalations that pose a threat to the lives of millions and to the efforts towards a peaceful solution for the five years of conflict in Yemen. The latest escalated hostilities between...
Algeria: The Citizen Hirak in a Time of Socioeconomic Depression & National Tragedy
OPINION
In Algeria, aside from the Red decade of dystopian groups’ terrorism and tragedy of state counter-terrorism acts, 1992-2000 was the gravest crisis in Algerian post-modern history. But for all the suffering and the ultimate effects of fear and...
The World Economy and the Middle East under the Shadow of the Oil-Market War
ANALYSIS
The new coronavirus came to the agenda with 4 infected people who worked in a market selling seafood and live animals and also with others who visited this market on the same days for the first time on December 29, 2019, in Wuhan, China. It is now...
Camp Taji Attacks: USA-Iran-Hashd Al-Shaabi Triangle in Iraq
OPINION
The rocket attacks against the Camp Taji military base in the north of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital city on March 11, claimed the lives of two American soldiers and one British while wounding twelve others. While no one claimed responsibility for...
Algiers-Rabat Relations: Double-Edged Diplomacy
OPINION
After years of relative calm, these past weeks have seen the rise of one of the hottest levels of diplomatic tension between the Moroccan and Algerian governments to date. News media battling between the two capitals is not new, and recent...
How the UAE’s Lobbying Instrument Works Abroad
OPINION
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is actively resorting to means such as lobbying to attain the power and reputation it has failed to achieve with military interventions. The UAE implements multiple types of lobbying that include inter-governmental...
Hosni Mubarak’s Political Heritage
OPINION
Hosni Mubarak, the ousted leader of Egypt, who remained in power for the longest time, died at the age of 92 on February 25. Born in 1928 to a poor family in the Monufia province of Egypt, Mubarak graduated from the Military Academy in 1949. He then...
How a possible US withdrawal from Iraq affects Turkey
OPINION
The U.S. assassinations of Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Baghdad as an attempt to irritate Iran flared up the long-standing debate about the U.S. presence in Iraq. The Iraqi Parliament, with the votes of Shiite MPs, recommended a bill...

Opinion See All

Sistani versus Khamenei on Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha’abi

Mehmet Alaca

On 18 March 2020, it was claimed that the militia groups affiliated with Iraq’s top Shi’a cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, had...

Saudi Arabia’s Deceitful Game in Yemen

Mohammed Alragawi

The first three months of 2020 has witnessed multiple military escalations that pose a threat to the lives of millions and to the efforts towards...

Algeria: The Citizen Hirak in a Time of Socioeconomic Depression & National Tragedy

Abdennour Toumi

In Algeria, aside from the Red decade of dystopian groups’ terrorism and tragedy of state counter-terrorism acts, 1992-2000 was the gravest...

Policy Brief See All

Impact of the Memorandum With Libya Upon the Eastern Mediterranean Equation

Recep Yorulmaz

The hydrocarbon reserves discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean have led to the reshaping of regional dynamics. The changing dynamics have...

Morocco’s Management of National Immigration Strategy (SNIA): The Limbo of the Mediterranean Immigration Crisis

Gün Ünal

Morocco is both a transit country with geographic proximity to Europe and a destination for thousands of Sub-Saharan Africans. In recent years,...

Far-Right Terrorism and Halle Synagogue Attack: 3D Printers and the Ghost of Tarrant

Göktuğ Sönmez

In terms of the way it has been conducted, its target and source of inspiration, the anti-Semitic terrorist attack in Germany provides a quite...

Analysis See All

The World Economy and the Middle East under the Shadow of the Oil-Market War

Recep Yorulmaz

The new coronavirus came to the agenda with 4 infected people who worked in a market selling seafood and live animals and also with others who...

Critical Infrastructures, Non-state Armed Actors and the Aramco Attack

Göktuğ Sönmez, Gökhan Ereli

With respect to the concept and definition of the very term “critical infrastructure”, several different definitions and components of...

Tribe and Tribal Ideology in Arabian Gulf States Foreign Policy Making: a Case Study of the Qatar Crisis

Noof ALDosarı

Largely unacknowledged in the international media, the blockade against Qatar, led by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt has been in place since...

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