Orientul Mijlociu

Turkey told the opposition its meetings with the Syrian regime did not address the issue of Idleb, according to Baladi News.

The head of the Syrian Negotiation Commission, Badr Jamous, said on Tuesday that the Syrian opposition delegation requested a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu because of “blaming the Syrians”. He stressed that the Syrian opposition did not meet with regime officials outside the framework of Astana and Geneva. 

The fourth division is feuding with the PKK over the quantities of fuel that reach Aleppo, according to Shaam Network.

Kurdish media have highlighted the situation of civilians in the Al-Shahba area north of Aleppo and the neighbourhoods of Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo, which are under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Media outlets focused on these areas due to the harsh siege conditions imposed by the regime’s Fourth Division. The siege comes against the backdrop of disputes with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) over the trade of fuel and other commercial commodities.

Russia’s faltering war effort in Ukraine has caused regional powers to exploit this and try to expand their influence in Syria, threatening to worsen humanitarian conditions there.

Moscow has stepped up diplomacy to normalize relations with the Assad regime and reintegrate Syria into the broader Middle East region, in part by opposing an extension of the United Nations cross-border humanitarian aid program for the Syrian people.

Disinformation will continue to evolve in 2023 with several trends worth highlighting, including: Sino-Russian alignment, more state actors seeking to acquire sophisticated disinformation capabilities, and the harnessing of emerging technologies for information manipulation purposes.

“These are the basic lines of the national government headed by me: The Jewish people have an exclusive and unquestionable right to all areas of the Land of Israel. The government will promote and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel – in the Galilee, the Negev, the Golan, Judea and Samaria.”

– Benjamin Netanyahu, December 30, 2023

Several weeks ago a wave of protests and demonstrations broke out in Syria, especially in the Al-Suwayda and Daraa governorates in the south, which are officially under the rule of the regime but where the regime’s security control is weak. The protests include expressions of opposition to the regime and its head, President Bashar Al-Assad, and slogans reminiscent of the first stages of the Syrian uprising in 2011, such as “the people want to topple the regime,” “long live Syria and down with Bashar Al-Assad,” and “Syria belongs to us, not to the Assad family.” There were also calls to expel Iran and Hizbullah from Syria.

The US Treasury Department designated four individuals and two entities accused of enabling the terrorist group’s recruitment and financial transfers.

The US Treasury Department on Thursday designated what it described as a Turkey-based financial network of the Islamic State (IS) that moved funds to and from Syria and Iraq. 

Iranian leaders are considering the possibility of offering concessions while simultaneously escalating their crackdown against protesters in an effort to quell the three-month-old uprising.

Hardliners in the regime believe that executing protesters will cause the woman-led unrest to subside.
Regime moderates have criticized the executions and seek to end enforcement of some of the restrictions that triggered the uprising.

After a bloody war that saw hundreds of thousands killed and millions displaced over a decade, Syria has been effectively divided into spheres of influence and de facto protectorates controlled by regional and international powers. Foremost among these has been Iran, which has come to exert huge influence not only over the Assad regime but also within Syrian society as a whole through a systematic Shiification strategy that has changed the country’s sociocultural character—a risky game in a region long afflicted by sectarian, religious, and ethnic conflicts.