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Syrian foreign minister Faruq al-Shara's recent announcement that Damascus and Beirut will sign peace treaties with Israel together is not surprising, considering Syria's hegemony in Lebanon. But while Israel, Syria, and the United States have expressed guarded optimism about the latest resumption of peace talks, Lebanon has been more reserved

When Syrians, Americans, and Israelis sat down in Washington this week, they may as well have kept an empty chair for a fourth key player in this equation--Turkey. Turkish water, in particular, will likely be needed to facilitate a Syrian-Israeli deal, but history suggests that Ankara will not provide that

U.S. president Bill Clinton and Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak will lead their respective national delegations at this week’s historic set of Syria-Israel peace talks, but Syrian president Hafiz al-Asad is sending his foreign minister in his stead. By keeping himself at one remove from the talks, Asad retains certain

On December 1, Mu'awyeh Al-Masri, a Palestinian legislator from Nablus, was shot in the leg by a group of masked men in broad daylight. This mafia-style "kneecapping" was the culmination of several days of arrests and protests in the Palestinian Authority (PA) which followed the distribution of a leaflet accusing

ROBERT SATLOFF General Observations Meetings with the four leaders--Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, Jordan's King Abdullah II, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, and Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Yasir Arafat--underscore the vitality of regional leadership. All seemed healthy, engaged, self-assured, and in command. Barak is clearly a man with a mission, convinced

I was on a bicycle trip with my wife in the faraway Canadian Rockies in July 1994 when our guide received a call on an ancient two-way radio from my office in Washington. Jordan and Israel had reached a deal, I was told, and an agreement was soon to be

This is a critical juncture for the Middle East and for U.S. foreign policy, and vigorous American engagement in the world is key. Our engagement has a huge impact on the peace and prosperity of the Middle East, and a huge impact on every part of the world. Not everyone

On September 30, 1999, Rima Khalaf-Hunaidi, Jordan's deputy prime minister and minister of planning and the highest female official in the Arab world, addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. The following is a rapporteur's summary of her remarks. Read a full transcript. High Expectations, Disappointing Outcomes When Jordan and

Three years ago, after a series of horrific bombings in Israel, President Clinton invited an array of world leaders to an anti-terrorism summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Clinton's goal was to save the Israeli-PLO peace process and, with it, Shimon Peres's Labor-led government. The process survived