Arab Digest podcasts
Arab Digest is a podcast where business leaders and experts on the Middle East and North Africa share analysis and insight about the most important issues in the region. The podcast covers a wide range of topics relevant to the MENA region, providing in-depth discussion and expert perspectives.
Episodes
Algeria: economic opportunity knocks
With the Ukraine war and the conflict in the Gulf, Algeria finds itself well placed to benefit economically. So Arab Digest editor William Law asked the North Africa and Western Mediterranean energy and security analyst Francis Ghilès to talk about how Algeria can exploit the opportunities and whether a country facing structural economic challenges can get past those challenges to realise the wind
The war that Trump has lost
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Quincy Institute's Annelle Sheline. Their conversation explores the damage that the Iran war is doing to Donald Trump's MAGA base and what the casual and contemptuous manner in which he treats his Gulf allies will mean for present and future relations with the GCC as Netanyahu strives to further exploit the president's guileless acceptance th
The encirclement of Sisi
William Law, editor of the Arab Digest newsletter, welcomes the Egyptian political and economic analyst Maged Mandour on to this week's podcast. Their conversation focusses on the trap that Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has built for himself and his country. With America, the UAE and Israel determined to reshape the Arab world to fit their own purposes Sisi is caught in a debt trap with t
How hard has the war hit GCC economies?
Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes the Gulf banking and finance analyst Andrew Cunningham onto the podcast to talk about the extent to which the Iran war is impacting the economies of the GCC states. They discuss the metrics used to measure economic damage and explore just how quickly Gulf economies can rebound once the war has ended. Given that the regime in Tehran has survived and will cont
Football, Sudan and Sheikh Mansour
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week on the podcast is the analyst and rights expert Nick McGeehan. The subject is football and how the owner of Manchester City FC is the subject of a complaint about his relationship with the Rapid Support Forces conducting a genocidal campaign as the Sudan civil war rages. Their conversation also explores FIFA's response to issues raised by the Palest
A template for troubled times
Arab Digest editor William Law invites the North Africa specialist Tarek Megerisi onto this week’s podcast. The starting point for their conversation is Tarek's take on the EU's "Pact for the Mediterranean" and how a fresh approach to North Africa could shape positive outcomes in a region urgently in need of them. They explore the threat that Israel and Trump's America pose regionally as well as g
Hezbollah and the war in Lebanon
Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes back the Levant expert Dr Lina Khatib to discuss the war in Lebanon. Dr Khatib argues that Hezbollah though significantly degraded continues to play a spoiler role and that until a solution is found that ends the Israeli-American war against Iran Lebanon will continue to suffer further collateral damage. She also argues that with the war over Israel will hav
How safe is al-Sharaa?
To discuss the current situation in Syria Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Syrian analyst Malik al-Abdeh.The leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and president of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaa has been embraced by Washington but he has faced multiple challenges, including assassination attempts, as he works to balance pressure from Israel and Türkiye with internal threats and ISIS r
The Gulf and three mad countries
The Gulf states are on the frontline of a war they worked hard to prevent. Once it began they find themselves facing a prime minister who uses permanent war to survive politically, a president who increasingly seems out of touch with reality and a regime that those two, Netanyahu and Trump, said they would replace but which has become only more hardline and more threatening. To help explain the ch
High energy stakes and the Strait of Hormuz
Arab Digest editor William Law has invited two top energy analysts - the Baker Institute's Jim Krane and Arab Digest's Alastair Newton - onto the podcast to discuss the implications and the impact for energy markets as Donald Trump vows to use force to open the passage. Iran’s Gulf neighbours and the wider region wonder, as does the rest of the world, how the war will end and where markets are hea
MAGA Inc. versus America First
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the conservative analyst Jon Hoffman. Amidst conflicting reports that Trump's base is or is not fracturing over the US-Israel war against Iran Jon Hoffman argues that the longer the conflict continues the greater the rift will grow between Trump's hardcore MAGA supporters who back his war and young disillusioned American Firsters who see continue
Notes From a Lost Country
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest is the Iraqi-American writer Sinan Antoon. The podcast focusses on his latest novel which interweaves the stories of two Iraqis in America , one a retired surgeon slipping into dementia, the other a young torture survivor but their conversation also ranges into the attempt by Israel to obliterate Palestinian culture and the impact of the current Iran war on I
Iran and regime survival
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest on this week's podcast is the Iran expert Sanam Vakil. As the war continues and Donald Trump flounders the Islamic regime is conducting its fight for survival with a tenacity that neither the Israelis or the Americans anticipated. Should the regime survive the majority who want change will lose but if it falls the likeliest outcome is chaos with further suffe
Türkiye and the Iran war
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Turkish analyst and writer Aslı Aydıntaşbaş. President Erdoğan's efforts to adopt a neutral stance while urging de-escalation are challenged by events on the ground and in the neighbourhood as Israel with Trump's backing moves to reshape the map of the Middle East. The Israeli tactic of using maximum kinetic force to achieve regional hegemony
Israel's strategy of chaos
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the defence and security analyst and Gulf specialist Andreas Krieg. The US/Israel war against Iran is upending security in the Gulf states and creating global anxiety and uncertainty. Donald Trump entered the war with no exit strategy. Now he and his administration are wavering. However, Benjamin Netanyahu has an end game: to create chaos in the
MbS and his Kingdom of Football
Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes author and analyst Kristian Coates Ulrichsen to the podcast to talk about football in Mohammed bin Salman's Saudi Arabia. The crown prince who was an international pariah just a few years ago has rehabilitated his image using the world's most popular sport as his road back. Kristian's book, just out, is called Kingdom of Football: Saudi Arabia and the Remaki
Sudan suffers and the world sits by
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Sudanese researcher and policy analyst Hamid Khalafallah. It was nearly three years ago that two generals went to war and plunged the country into what has become the world's worst humanitarian disaster. Outside players such as the UAE which has armed one of the sides have played a significant role in prolonging the war and causing enormous h
Deinvesting Israel's genocide
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the lawyer Sara Segneri, an expert in sanctions law, war crimes and international financial crime. Israel with the support of the US, the UK and other Western governments acts with impunity as it prosecutes a genocide but as Segneri succinctly argues ignoring national and international law puts foreign investors in illegal settlements and in the
Algeria, Libya and Europe's urgent energy needs
Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes the security and energy analyst Francis Ghilès onto the podcast. With European states needing to escape their reliance on Russian gas they explore opportunities for the energy rich Maghreb countries of Libya and Algeria to meet Europe's requirements. In doing so a new relationship based on energy links could evolve but big obstacles remain on both sides of t
Syria's Kurds face an uncertain future
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Kurdish American journalist Sirwan Kajjo. With the sudden defeat of the SDF the Kurds who had hoped for autonomy are seeing those hopes evaporate. At the same time the abandonment of ISIS prisons and camps in North East Syria and the presence of their supporters in the Syrian army resurrects the spectre of a jihadist war in Syria and Iraq and
Trump seeks "the strategic submission of Iran"
Arab Digest editor William Law invites Sanam Vakil director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at London’s Chatham House onto the podcast to discuss the current situation in Iran. Yet again another uprising has been brutally suppressed but as its Arab neighbours breathe a sigh of relief that a war has been averted the regime itself, assailed from within and without, is severely weakened
A black eye in Yemen for the UAE
This week's podcast looks at recent events in Yemen that have severely damaged the reputation of the UAE as a wily and pragmatic regional powerhouse. Joining Arab Digest editor William Law is the Yemen expert and author Helen Lackner. They explore the quick and humiliating defeat of the UAE-backed southern Yemen STC forces as Saudi Arabia delivered a powerful military punch that routed the secessi
The Middle East in Trump's new world order
Aslı Aydıntaşbaş from Washington's Brookings Institute joins Arab Digest editor William Law for the first podcast of 2026. Barely a week in and with Donald Trump's seizure of the Venezuelan president and his wife it is already a year that has upended the old world order. Where that leaves the volatile and violent Middle East is a question their conversation grapples with.
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Editor's Choice - A small town in Lebanon
The editor's choice for 2025 is our 26 February podcast 'A small town in Lebanon' with George Kanaan. His book Beyond Lebanon's Peaks: An Odyssey is a fascinating memoir of a businessman and banker who though he has travelled the world in a storied career has never left behind Suq el-Gharb and his Levantine roots. In a wide ranging conversation he reflects on the book and on the current situation
The Arab Digest 2025 year end review
Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes Tarek Megerisi and Annelle Sheline to this week's podcast. Their conversation reflects on the big stories of the year just passed - those that made the headlines and those that didn't - and looks ahead at what 2026 will bring to a region beset by terrible wars and facing great uncertainty in a world turned upside down by the antics and actions of Donald Trum
Migrants, IDPs and the Middle East
William Law's guest this week on the Arab Digest podcast is the European Council on Foreign Relations' Kelly Petillo. Their conversation focusses on three countries - Syria, Sudan and Palestine - and the challenges and obstacles they face both external and internal in managing the millions who have been displaced by years of wars. Petillo argues that Europe must step up and provide humane solution
Syria one year on
On 8 December last year the Syrian capital Damascus fell to rebel forces. Arab Digest editor William Law has invited Syrian analyst and writer Malik al-Abdeh on to this week's podcast to discuss how the country is faring under the leadership of its president Ahmed al-Sharaa and how outside forces remain significant players in shaping the direction Syria will take in 2026.
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Netanyahu's plan: perpetual war courtesy of the American taxpayer
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is Jon Hoffman from the Washington libertarian think tank the Cato Institute. Their conversation focuses on the growing rift in American right wing circles about ongoing US support for Israel. Jon Hoffman also reflects on his recent visit to Israel and the Occupied West Bank and he delivers a simple message: America walk away.
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The Lord: a forgotten Middle East masterpiece
In 1986 Soraya Antonius published a devastatingly powerful novel about the brutality of the British Mandate in Palestine. The book quickly slipped into obscurity. But now 8 years after Antonius' death it has been rescued from oblivion and republished. William Law's guest this week is the writer Selma Dabbagh who authored the introduction to a new edition of The Lord.
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Captagon's new hub in Sudan
William Law's guest this week is Caroline Rose, an expert in tracking the production and distribution of Captagon. The fall of the Assad regime and its Captagon empire has opened up new hubs for the drug. One of those is Sudan. In a country trapped in a vicious civil war there is growing evidence that one side in the conflict, the UAE-backed RSF, is exploiting the Assad overthrow and a Captagon hu
We will not be silent
The arrest of the journalist and Arab Digest contributor Sami Hamdi in San Francisco is an attempt to silence criticism of Israel's genocidal war against Palestine and the Palestinians. William Law's guest this week is Hussam Ayloush the head of CAIR-LA. CAIR is the organisation that had invited our contributor to the US to speak for the Palestinian cause.
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The UAE and genocide in Sudan
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Sudanese analyst Kholood Khair. With the RSF conducting a massacre in the city of El Fasher in Darfur questions need to be asked and answered about the role the United Arab Emirates is playing in supplying weapons to the RSF. And Western governments including the UK need to bring pressure on both warring sides - the RSF and the SAF- to secure
The Call: the price of oil at year's end
William Law's guest this week is Alastair Newton. In a wide ranging conversation Arab Digest's energy analyst reflects on the likelihood of a huge glut of oil on the world market, how Gulf energy producers will play their hand in the coming months, Chinese dominance in critical minerals and how that will impact on oil, the Trump factor as he announces sanctions on Russia's Rosneft and Lukoil and A
Yemen, Israel and the UAE
Yemen expert Helen Lackner joins William Law in this week’s Arab Digest podcast. A country caught in a frozen war faces further threats from Israel and Emirati efforts to stymy Riyadh’s attempts to secure a peace deal that would extricate the Saudis from the quagmire in which they have been stuck for more than ten years.
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Vultures over Libya
Libya expert Tarek Megerisi joins William Law to discuss the plundering of the country's energy wealth by external players and foreign commercial entities aided and abetted by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh and Khalifa Haftar. As these two corrupt leaders chase wealth and strive for dominance in a fractured Libya, countries like Türkiye, Russia and the UAE seize the opportunity to entrench themselves and fur
Trump chases a Nobel Peace Prize
William Law's guest this week on the Arab Digest podcast is the Gulf analyst and author Kristian Coates Ulrichsen. As talks continue in Cairo on President Trump's 20 point plan to end the Gaza war much rides on the pressure Washington will bring to bear on the participants. Meanwhile the Gulf states watch and wonder whether Benjamin Netanyahu has replaced Iran as the gravest threat to regional sec
Iraq: challenges and opportunities
William Law's guest this week is Renad Mansour director of the Iraq Initiative at Chatham House. With the annual Iraq Initiative conference getting underway under his leadership Renad discusses the many challenges as well as the opportunities the country faces as it strives to move forward in an uncertain and unstable neighbourhood. Details on the two day conference are found here -
https://www.ch
Netanyahu's Yemen war
The Yemeni political analyst Maysaa Shuja al-Deen joins William Law as they discuss the smouldering war between the Huthis and Israel. Abdul-Malik al-Huthi has used Gaza to strengthen his iron control and to enhance his reputation as the man who stands up to Netanyahu. But with the Israelis acting with impunity the stakes grow ever higher with the Yemeni people caught between two reckless, arrogan
Netanyahu unhinged
The Gulf defence and security analyst Andreas Krieg joins Arab Digest's William Law as they assess implications for the Gulf States and the wider Middle East of Israel's missile strike on Doha. With Donald Trump functioning as a loyal sidekick rather than as the president of the mightiest military nation in the world Benjamin Netanyahu continues to wreak regional havoc crossing red line after red
Sudan and the war the world ignores
Arab Digest's William Law launches a new podcast season with the Sudanese political analyst Dallia Abdelmoneim. It's been more than two years since a vicious civil war between two generals erupted, one that has been aided and armed by different international players on both sides. Today Sudan is the world's worst humanitarian disaster and the world has chosen to look away.
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AD’s All New Top Ten Podcast Countdown: #1 A good year for MbS
The Saudi crown prince continued to polish his image while staking his claim to leadership of the Arab and Muslim world but the issue of Palestine remains a significant challenge and a potential stumbling block to the ambitions of Mohammed bin Salman.
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AD’s All New Top Ten Podcast Countdown: #2 Syria: caught between Türkiye and Israel
Both Israel and Türkiye see Syria as a prize to be grasped; for President Erdoğan as a zone of influence and economic opportunity; for the far right extremists in the Netanyahu government as an opportunity to seize territory in pursuing their vision of Greater Israel. First podcast 8 January 2025.
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AD’s All New Top Ten Podcast Countdown: #3 Yemen: the Huthis and Al Qaeda
With the ability to attack maritime shipping in the Red Sea the Huthis threaten not just regional but international security while the Gaza war has given them a huge propaganda victory, one that would be decisively undercut should Palestinian statehood be enabled. No. 3 in our Top Ten with Elisabeth Kendall was first broadcast on 29 January 2025.
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AD’s All New Top Ten Podcast Countdown: #4 Palestine and a new awakening
In a landscape of genocide and ethnic cleansing a leading Middle East writer and analyst peels away the empty rhetoric to unflinchingly show the catastrophe that Israel has chosen to inflict upon the Palestinian people over decades while finding hope in the generation of young Arabs who have discovered their identity in the ongoing tragedy of Palestine.
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AD’s All New Top Ten Podcast Countdown: #5 The Queer Arab Glossary
A brilliant anthology of images, essays and slang locates and embraces Arab queerness and defines the urgency of resistance to oppression, arbitrary force and to the Gaza genocide.
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AD’s All New Top Ten Podcast Countdown: #6 Erdoğan plays a long game
Just after Joe Biden’s disastrous presidential debate in June of last year and just before the annual NATO Summit Arab Digest invited a leading Washington-based Middle East and Türkiye analyst onto the podcast to discuss amongst other matters what a Trump presidency would mean for Türkiye and the wider Middle East region.
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AD’s All New Top Ten Podcast Countdown: #7 Syria has a new strongman
Summary: on 8 December last year the regime of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was routed in a lightning offensive that had burst out of the previously besieged rebel enclave of Idlib. The offensive was spearheaded by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa known then by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani.
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AD’s All New Top Ten Podcast Countdown: #8 Netanyahu and the war of weaponised narratives
On 27 September 2024 the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in Beirut in an Israeli airstrike. Four days later Arab Digest invited the security and defence specialist Dr Andreas Krieg onto the podcast to discuss the assassination and the broader picture within the context of his study on the weaponisation of narratives.
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AD’s All New Top Ten Podcast Countdown: #9 Lebanon looks forward
With the appointment of a new president and the arrival of a new prime minister in early 2025 optimism among the Lebanese has grown despite a shaky ceasefire and the ever present threat of Israel
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AD’s All New Top Ten Podcast Countdown: #10 Understanding Iran
Through July and August we are featuring our all new top ten podcasts countdown. We begin with Sanam Vakil’s Understanding Iran first podcast 8 October 2024 a week after Iran had hit Israel with ballistic missiles. The attack was in retaliation for the Israeli assassinations of Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, the IRGC general Abbas Nilforoushan and the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
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The Danger Games in the Middle East
Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes the defence and security analyst Andreas Krieg to the podcast to discuss the latest moves in a dangerous game that Israel and Iran are playing out while Donald Trump dances on his social media stage and Western nations join him in throwing out the rules-based order that with all its flaws provided a modicum of certainty and security for the Middle East and t
Walking into war eyes wide open
As the limits of Donald Trump's transactional approach to foreign policy becomes all too dangerously clear Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes the Iraq expert Renad Mansour on to the podcast. With the old world order evaporating almost overnight state and non-state actors have rushed to fill the vacuum. This week's conversation reveals how in this new and emerging multi-aligned world the Middl
The Kurds see an opening
With rapid change sweeping a region still in the throes of wars the Kurdish people spread across four nations see an opportunity to secure if not their dream of a nation then autonomy within national federal structures that would secure their rights and culture as a people. Arab Digest editor William Law invites the Kurdish-American journalist Sirwan Kajjo onto the podcast to discuss the possibili
US and Iran edge closer to a deal
The Iran expert Sanam Vakil joins Arab Digest editor William Law to discuss the likelihood of Washington and Tehran striking a new nuclear accord. What sort of a pact will the Ayatollah and the self-proclaimed ‘dealmaker in chief’ arrive at and what will America's Gulf friends, to say nothing of the Israelis make of it? The White House has said it has put a proposal on the table. What it looks and
Saudi Arabia and an uncertain oil market
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the energy analyst and Digest regular contributor Alastair Newton. Their conversation focusses on how Saudi Arabia is seeking to shape oil prices and the market to meet their financial requirements as Saudi Aramco profits dip and the costs for Mohammed bin Salman's multiple giga-projects continue to be a significant drag on the kingdom's purse.
A Gulf bonanza for the 'dealmaker in chief'
Two top Washington Middle East analysts join Arab Digest editor William Law to discuss President Trump's recent trip to the Gulf. Annelle Sheline and Jon Hoffman reflect on the deals made, Trump's meeting with the former jihadist and now president of Syria Ahmad al-Sharaa and the significance of the president deciding to bypass Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu as he swept through Saudi Arabia,
GHF: aiding and abetting the IDF
Arab Digest editor William Law is joined by Middle East Eye's Dania Akkad and the focus of their conversation is GHF - the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation - which popped up fully formed and already seemingly underway with a plan that closely mirrors Israeli strategy to use humanitarian aid to force Palestinians out of most of the Gaza Strip and into a tiny sliver of land from whence it will be possib
Libya in a dangerous time
Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes the Libya specialist Tarek Megerisi back to the podcast to discuss Libya and the dangerous stalemate it has settled into. Two families preside over an extraordinary level of corruption that further impoverishes the Libyan people. Their criminality is aided and abetted by foreign players who see in the political stalemate an opportunity to advance geopolitica
Trump's quiet war on Yemen
The podcast returns after a short break with Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with the Yemen expert Helen Lackner. As the world focusses on Donald Trump's egregious trampling of the rule of law and his destruction of the prevailing world order little notice is given to US strikes on claimed Huthi targets that are occurring on a daily basis while humanitarian aid has all but dried up.
Lebanon looks forward
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Levant expert Dr Lina Khatib. Their conversation focusses on new hope building in Lebanon after the crushing blow Israel delivered to Hezbollah and the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria. With a new president and a new prime minister in place hope is running high that the country will find the political will to move away from the sectarian
Syria in a dangerous time
Syria expert Malik al-Abdeh joins Arab Digest editor William Law to discuss the latest developments in Syria as the country's new leadership struggles with internal sectarian rivalries and pressures from outside players in the neighbourhood including Israel and Türkiye. They explore too the role of Putin and Trump and what will happen as Washington pursues an isolationist approach to foreign relat
Assad is gone, Captagon hangs on
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the New Lines Institute's Caroline Rose an expert on the illicit drug Captagon. With the fall of Bashar al-Assad his family's hold on the lucrative trade has suddenly evaporated but the drug hasn't disappeared from Syria and other actors and other countries are eying up opportunities as the Trump administration freezes US engagements in the globa
A small town in Lebanon
Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes George Kanaan to this week's podcast. His book Beyond Lebanon's Peaks: An Odyssey is a fascinating memoir of a businessman and banker who though he has travelled the world in a storied career has never left behind Suq el-Gharb and his Levantine roots. In a wide ranging conversation he reflects on the book and on the current situation in Lebanon and what he c
Morocco's economic express
In this week's podcast Arab Digest editor William Law is joined by the North Africa expert Francis Ghilès to discuss the reasons why the Moroccan economy is in good health while its Maghreb neighbours Algeria and Tunisia are struggling. Part of the answer is its geography: Morocco sits as a linchpin between Europe and Africa. The rest though has to do with strong macroeconomic policies and a resil
The Gulf's Islam rebrand
William Law, Arab Digest editor welcomes the Cato Institute's Jon Hoffman to the podcast to discuss his just released book Islam and Statecraft. Jon lays out how the Gulf ruling families have used Islam as a political tool to enhance foreign policy thrusts, ensure regime security and project power. With the West embracing the Gulf's so-called "moderate Islam" and Donald Trump in the White House Is
Refugee crises in the Levant
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the European Council on Foreign Relations' Kelly Petillo. While the world is fixated on Trump and tariffs the refugee crisis in the Middle East gathers pace as Europe pushes to remove Syrian refugees under the assumption that now that Assad is gone Syria is safe. Meanwhile President Trump muses on relocating Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan, in o
Yemen: the Huthis and Al Qaeda
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the jihadist extremism expert Dr Elisabeth Kendall. Their conversation focuses on Yemen's Huthis and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP.) Both have benefitted from the Gaza war in terms of popular support and propaganda messaging while a peace deal to end the nearly ten years of civil war slips further and further away.
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A ceasefire and the gap between hope and reality
Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes analyst and author Andreas Krieg back on the podcast to discuss the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Both sides claim a victory but unless the ceasefire holds and until it moves into the second phase and beyond that into its third phase of full withdrawal of the IDF and the beginning of reconstruction of war-destroyed Gaza fear and anxiety will continue t
Israel, war crimes and a case to answer
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the director of Airwars Emily Tripp. Airwars has methodically detailed the civilian casualties caused by the thousands of air strikes carried out by Israel on Gaza in its prosecution of the war against Hamas. The body of evidence assembled tells a story unprecedented in the annals of contemporary warfare with the killing of civilians becoming an
Syria: caught between Türkiye and Israel
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Turkish writer and analyst Aslı Aydıntaşbaş. With the victory of the Salafist HTS in Syria both Türkiye and Israel see opportunities to accelerate their regional ambitions but the two may be heading toward an intense new rivalry as Netanyahu woos the Kurds of Northeast Syria and Erdoğan weighs up whether to offer them the hand of peace or to
Editor's choice: Amal Ghandour
The editor's choice for 2024 is our 18 September podcast Palestine and a new awakening with the writer and commentator Amal Ghandour. When we spoke with her then 41000 Palestinians had been killed and 96000 wounded. As Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people continues that number has now reached more than 45000 killed and 107000 wounded. The podcast aired before the assassination of the H
The Arab Digest 2024 yearender
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest is the analyst and commentator Sami Hamdi. In a rapid fire run through the Middle East headlines of 2024 they cover a lot of ground from an ISIS massacre to the Sudan war, from the ICJ decision on Israel's seizure of Palestinian land to the triumph of Trump and the fall of Assad with several stops in between and a forecast from Sami about what 2025 may bring.
Oil, OPEC and the outlook for 2025
William Law's guest this week is Arab Digest's resident energy analyst Alastair Newton. In a tumultuous and violent year in the Middle East and elsewhere OPEC has seen its market relevance continue to decline raising concerns for Saudi Arabia as its bid to diversify away from hydrocarbons falters. Questions too about whether the cartel itself will survive. And from the analyst who called it spot o
Syria has a new strongman
With the stunning success of HTS and its leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani in bringing down the Assad regime Syria enters a new era. How al-Jolani chooses to structure the country and how Syria's neighbours in the Middle East respond will determine whether instability and new war fronts emerge or whether the Syrian people finally secure lasting peace and a government answerable to them. As the aftersh
A good year for MbS
William Law's guest this week on the Arab Digest podcast is the Gulf expert Kristian Coates Ulrichsen. They look back at the year that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has had, one where he has strengthened his diplomatic ties with Iran, holds the upper hand in the normalisation with Israel game and looks set to gain essential time on delivering Vision 2030 with the looming announcement that
The silence of Sisi
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Egyptian analyst and author Maged Mandour. They explore the reasons behind President Sisi's virtual silence as the IDF conducts its genocide in Gaza while increasing land seizures in the Occupied West Bank and enlarging the war into Lebanon. Maged Mandour reveals that economic and ideological factors are behind Egypt's abandonment of Palestin
Macron in Morocco
When the French president recognised Morocco's claim to the disputed territory of Western Sahara he sought to burnish his tarnished reputation in North Africa. Francis Ghilès joins Arab Digest editor Wiliam Law to discuss why Macron's efforts are likely to produce few if any positive results and he argues that the situation won't change unless France - and Europe - see North Africa through a diffe
Libya: cooperation with devils
Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes back the Libyan analyst Tarek Megerisi for a wide ranging conversation about the criminal activities of the two families that rule in a divided Libya squandering the country's wealth while playing Europe and the EU for patsies in the lucrative, ever growing and utterly ruthless industry of human trafficking.
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What Trump 2.0 means for the Middle East
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is Jon Hoffman a research fellow in defence and foreign policy at Washington's Cato Institute with a particular specialism in US policy in the Middle East. Donald Trump's emphatic victory in this week's presidential election comes at a time when the MENA region is convulsed by war. In his triumphal victory speech Trump promised peace but will his er
Iraqi Kurdistan walks a fine line
Arab Digest editor William Law is joined by the Kurdish American journalist Sirwan Kajjo. A recent parliamentary election in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq featured a high turnout and a strong showing by a new party, both indications that the grip of the two families that have controlled the region for decades is beginning to slip. Meantime Iraqi Kurdistan continues a delicate balancing act as the w
