Al-Monitor: First stop for understanding the Middle East in 2024

…with more to come for 2025.

Andrew Parasiliti
Andrew Parasiliti
Dec 20, 2024
An aerial view shows a Syrian man waving the independence-era Syrian flag at Damascus' central Umayyad Square on Dec. 11, 2024.
An aerial view shows a Syrian man waving the independence-era Syrian flag at Damascus' central Umayyad Square on Dec. 11, 2024. — BAKR ALKASEM/AFP via Getty Images

It starts with Al-Monitor

Where to begin in understanding what happened in the Middle East in 2024?

• The year began with Ebrahim Raisi as president of Iran, Bashar al-Assad as president of Syria, Hassan Nasrallah as secretary-general of Hezbollah, Ismail Haniyeh as chairman of the Hamas political bureau, and Yahya Sinwar as Hamas’ chief in Gaza.

• As we turn the corner into 2025, Assad is in Russia, and Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, still designated a terrorist by the United States, is receiving reporters and delegations, including from Washington, at Assad’s former palace; Israel killed Nasrallah and pummeled Hezbollah, allowing the United States to help broker a peace deal that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war; more than a year after Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has Hamas on the brink of defeat in Gaza, killing Haniyeh and Sinwar along the way; and Masoud Pezeshkian won a run-off election as a Reformist president of Iran following Raisi’s death in a plane crash in May.

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