Latest Libya Podcast Episodes
Palestinian American historian Rashid Khalidi says Israel, US will face new wave of hostility in Middle East as Gaza war escalates
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - October 18, 2023 20:38 - 37 minutesRashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, argues that Israel’s persistent repression of the Palestinians and denial of their right to statehood are the underlying cause of Hamas' brutal Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state. Successive US gover...
Israel's envoy to Bahrain says Iran behind Hamas attack, target is Abraham Accords
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - October 18, 2023 17:18 - 25 minutesIsrael's Ambassador to Bahrain Eitan Na'eh says that Iran was the driving force behind Hamas' October 7 attack on his country and that the Abraham Accords were the main target. The envoy insists that the accords are aimed at developing economic prosperity and trust in the Middle East an...
Sister of kidnapped Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov says US and Iraq can secure her release from Shiite militants
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - October 11, 2023 19:44 - 23 minutesEmma Tsurkov, a scholar at Stanford University, says all she knows about her sister Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped by the Iraqi Shiite militant group Kataib Hezbollah in March, is that she is still alive and in Baghdad. The conflict in Gaza triggered by Hamas' attack on Israel wil...
Will Armenia’s land border with Iran be Azerbaijan’s next target after Nagorno-Karabakh, asks analyst Benjamin Poghosyan
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - September 21, 2023 15:17 - 24 minutesYerevan-based analyst Benjamin Poghosyan says that Azerbaijan's actions in Nagorno-Karabakh presage further land grabs and broader conflict. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Iraqi Kurdish scholar Mohammed Salih says violence targeting Kurds in Kirkuk revives ghosts of Saddam regime
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - September 07, 2023 20:16 - 24 minutesAt least four Kurdish demonstrators were shot dead last weekend in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, raising the specter of Arab-Kurdish conflict. The bloodshed was triggered by an Iraqi federal court rejecting Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani's decision to let a Kurdish group recla...
Saudi Arabia responsible for mass killings of Ethiopian migrants on Yemeni border, says Human Rights Watch researcher Nadia Hardman
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - August 24, 2023 18:06 - 18 minutesHundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers have been shot by Saudi border guards as they tried to cross in from Yemen, according to a chilling new report from Human Rights Watch. The allegations were substantiated by international media outlets, including the Reuters news agency...
After 39 years of armed conflict with Turkey, outlawed PKK militants may be weakened but not defeated, says author Frederike Geerdink
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - August 15, 2023 20:10 - 35 minutesAug. 15 marks the 39th anniversary of the launch of the armed campaign by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party against the Turkish state. The group has evolved over the years, shedding its demands for Kurdish independence. Yet however much it rejects the nationalist label, many Kurds co...
'My father shares a prison cell with inmates who make sandwiches with their own flesh,' says British-Tunisian activist Kaouther Ferjani
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - August 10, 2023 21:28 - 22 minutesTunisia's descent into autocracy under President Cais Saied is continuing full throttle. The Islamist Ennahda which shared power in successive governments since Tunisia's 2011 Jasmine Revolution is the main target of Saied's ire. Dozens of its members including party leader Rached Ghann...
Turkey's ratification of Sweden's NATO membership not enough to secure Congressional approval for F-16s, says Hellenic American Leadership Council chief Endy Zemenides
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - July 26, 2023 21:06 - 24 minutesSeveral top US senators say Turkey's acquisition of US F-16 fighter jets hinges on its ratification of Sweden's membership in NATO. Turkey wants guarantees from Congress that it will sign off on the deal before securing parliamentary approval for Sweden's membership. However, Endy Zemen...
Does Turkey's decision to let Sweden join NATO spell new positive era with Washington? Not really, says Turkey analyst Nicholas Danforth
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - July 13, 2023 20:37 - 19 minutesTurkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has decided to tell the Turkish parliament to greenlight Sweden's NATO membership, prompting a flood of praise from alliance leaders. US President Joe Biden, who met with Erdogan for more than an hour, hailed him for what he termed Erdogan's coura...
Free Turkish Press editor Yavuz Baydar says Erdogan will win local elections, crush Kurds and strut on world stage
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - June 29, 2023 17:45 - 26 minutesTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's victory in the May presidential and parliamentary polls ushers in a new and irreversible era in Turkish politics, cementing one man rule and reducing parliament to more of a rubber stamp. The sole threat to Erdogan's grip over power is Turkey's ...
Iranian academic Arash Azizi says slain Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani looms as large in death as in life
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - June 15, 2023 16:38 - 21 minutesThe legacy of Qassem Soleimani, the legendary commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Al Quds Force, continues to reverberate across the region, says his biographer Arash Azizi. He has left a vacuum that has yet to be filled. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Ca...
Turkey scholar Howard Eissenstat on the dynamics of Erdogan's enduring success
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - May 30, 2023 18:01 - 32 minutesTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was just re-elected president even though pollsters predicted that his rival would win. Turkey scholar Howard Eissenstat says that Erdogan, the country's most skilled politician in modern times, is a master at reading the nation's pulse. But can h...
Syrian Kurdish leader Salih Muslim says Assad's return to Arab League is welcome, but won't amount to much
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - May 18, 2023 20:49 - 28 minutesThe co-chair of the main party governing Kurdish-led northeast Syria believes Arab engagement with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria may help secure a peaceful resolution to the Syrian conflict, provided that there are conditions attached. These include granting ethnic and religious m...
Pro-Kurdish Green Left Party candidate Ceylan Akca says Turkish security forces are terrorizing Kurdish voters but will fail
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - May 08, 2023 18:02 - 24 minutesTurkey's Kurds are poised to swing the outcome of the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing the biggest challenge in his 20 years in uninterrupted power. Kurdish parliamentary candidate Ceylan Akca says that despite his govern...
Former Sudan advisor to US government Cameron Hudson says US sanctions on Sudan's rival generals could have averted conflict
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - April 21, 2023 17:24 - 30 minutesAl-Monitor Senior Correspondent Amberin Zaman interviews newsmakers, journalists, and thought leaders from the US and Middle East about the latest news and trends in the region. Amberin travels the region for Al-Monitor, specializing in news and analysis in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and the Ca...
Iraq expert Bilal Wahab says Turkey wants guarantees from Baghdad before allowing Kurdish oil exports to resume
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - April 12, 2023 18:37 - 41 minutesTurkey and Iraq have been mired in a legal dispute over the export of Iraqi Kurdish oil through Turkish export terminals. Baghdad says the deal struck between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds to sell oil is illegal. The International Chamber of Commerce's international arbitration fined Turke...
Turkey analyst Merve Tahiroglu says Kurds will back opposition presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu to unseat Erdogan in first round
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - March 23, 2023 20:15 - 26 minutesTurkey’s watershed elections on which the future of its crippled democracy hangs are due to be held on May 14. Opinion polls continue to point to a tight race making the outcome of the presidential and parliamentary polls difficult to call . Election security remains a big concern and t...
Kurdish academic Mashuq Kurt says Erdogan's electoral alliance with Turkish Hizbullah offshoot a risky step
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - March 16, 2023 17:08 - 35 minutesTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan risks losing power for the first time in 20 years in elections that are to be held on May 14. He has turned to Huda par, an Islamist Kurdish party that has roots in Hizbullah, a violent group that waged a bloody war against the PKK and its sympathi...
Turkish commentator Cengiz Candar says Turkey's opposition will win elections overwhelmingly with Kurdish backing
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - March 10, 2023 20:43 - 25 minutesTurkey will hold parliamentary and presidential elections on May 14. The outcome will determine whether Turkey can return to a more democratic path or plunge into full blown autocracy, or worse dictatorship, some say. For the first time the opposition appears to have a chance of winning...
Tunisia expert Monica Marks warns Tunisia's march towards dictatorship could turn bloody
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - March 02, 2023 17:14 - 38 minutesTunisia's autocratic President Kais Saied, since his dramatic power grab in 2021, has increased the volume of repression in the north African nation, arresting scores of opposition figures as well as civil activists and journalists. The country's fledgling democracy is on life support. ...
Iran expert John Raine says Iranian hardliners want a military pact with Russia for the survival of the Islamic regime
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - February 22, 2023 17:20 - 19 minutesCooperation between Iran and Russia has been growing since Russian forces intervened in Syria to help rescue Iran's top regional ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2015. Military ties between the two countries have now expanded to Ukraine, where Russian forces are using drones su...
Middle East Institute Turkey director Gonul Tol says one man rule, corruption increased deaths in killer earthquakes
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - February 10, 2023 19:05 - 23 minutesPublic anger is mounting over the Turkish government's slow response to the massive earthquakes that shook the country's southern regions on Feb. 6. The death toll is rapidly climbing as an unknown number of people remain trapped under the rubble in freezing temperatures in Turkey and S...
Crisis Group South Caucasus Analyst Olesya Vartanyan warns renewed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan would impact broader region
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - February 02, 2023 21:42 - 26 minutesTensions are escalating in the South Caucasus again, as Armenia and Azerbaijan remain locked in a bitter standoff over access to Nagorno-Karabakh. As an emboldened Azerbaijan eyes further gains — including a land corridor to Turkey that would cut off Iran’s access to Armenia — relations...
The Economist's Turkey Correspondent Piotr Zalewski says don't give up on Turkey's battered democracy quite yet
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - January 30, 2023 18:21 - 30 minutesTurkey is headed for watershed elections on May 14 that could, depending on its outcome, deal the final blow to its wobbly democracy. The odds are fully stacked in favor of the country's autocratic president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Economist magazine last week caused a furore when it...
UK's Syria envoy warns normalizing relations with Assad regime will undermine efforts for justice and accountability
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - January 13, 2023 00:08 - 24 minutesTurkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he wants to meet his longtime nemesis Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Many see Ankara's recent efforts to fix relations with Damascus as part of Erdogan's election strategy, amid promises to send back millions of unwanted Syrian refugees. O...
Syrian commentator Ibrahim Hamidi says Kurds have surpassed Jihadis as Assad regime's greatest enemy
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - January 05, 2023 19:31 - 33 minutesThe conflict in Ukraine has had a profound impact on geopolitical balances across the globe. The effects are certainly being felt in Syria, where Russia has been propping up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Russia has been pressuring Assad to respond to Turkish overtures, which ...
Investigative journalist Guillaume Perrier says 'you cannot tell Kurds Turkey was not involved in Paris murders'
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - December 29, 2022 20:00 - 32 minutesOn Dec. 23, three Kurdish activists were murdered in the heart of Paris by a 69 year old Frenchman with a history of violence against foreigners. But many Kurds believe the suspect was put up to the job by Turkey's national intelligence agency the MIT. French authorities have launched a...
French academic Fabrice Balanche says Turkish offensive against Syrian Kurds "a matter of time"
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - December 13, 2022 19:25 - 34 minutesTurkey has been threatening since last month to launch a major ground invasion against the Kurds of northeast Syria. More than a month has passed and Russia and the United States have aired their objections to Turkey's plans. Turkey has yet to strike. Does this mean that it has caved to...
American aid volunteer David Eubank says Syrian Kurds feel even more betrayed by US in wake of Turkey's most recent attacks
On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman - November 28, 2022 18:15 - 21 minutesTurkey is threatening to mount a fresh ground assault against the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria after a wave of airstrikes that left 11 civilians and numerous Kurdish fighters dead. US officials say they are trying to de-escalate the situation, but their Syrian K...