What Future for the Middle East?
... stabilise a crucial region for world trade, resources, and security After years of furious and brutal fighting, Syria and Iraq seem now to be slowly stabilising. A peace process in Syria is gaining momentum, and ISIS’ defeat is getting closer. However, Middle Eastern problems remain massive. Among them we have selected three main issues, which are also interconnected: the hostility between Saudi Arabia and Iran, Sunni and Shia; the stabilisation of oil prices, which are now rising but remain — as always — difficult to predict; the presence of terrorism, which, despite ISIS’ decline, is still a problem well beyond the region. Starting with the geopolitics, there clearly are two main contenders. Both are quite rich, have vast economic potential, young populations, immense resources, but are ...