The editorial team of commonspace.eu extends its best wishes for Christmas and the festive season to all our contributors, supporters, readers and subscribers. We wish all the best to all of you, but foremost we wish you peace. The accompanying picture has been circulating on the internet in the last days, and it shows the tragedy of war, during the festive season, in this case in Gaza. The message of Christmas is the message of peace. We hope everyone will have a peaceful and happy Christmas.

Health officials in Gaza say more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas. The figure, amounting to nearly one percent of the territory’s prewar population, is a new reflection of the staggering cost of the war, which in just over 10 weeks has displaced more than 80 percent of Gaza’s people and devastated wide swaths of the tiny coastal enclave. Gaza’s health ministry said Friday that it has documented 20,057 deaths in the fighting. It does not differentiate between combatant and civilian deaths. It has previously said that roughly two-thirds of the dead were women or children.

Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah took the constitutional oath as the new Emir of Kuwait at a special session of the country's parliament on Wednesday (20 December), becoming the 17th Amir of the State of Kuwait.   In a speech after the constitutional ceremony in the Assembly, Sheikh Mishal paid tribute to late Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah who died on Saturday, and strongly criticized the government and the Assembly for taking “unanimous decisions that harm national interests”. Kuwait has a complex constitutional arrangement that has developed over decades to balance the interests of different branches of the ruling al Sabah family, and the power of the royal family and people’s opinion reflected through the country’s elected parliament which has become increasingly adept at providing scrutiny of the ruling family. For this reason, Kuwait is considered the most democratic of the six GCC monarchies, but the system has also often ended in deadlock between the parliament and ruling family, sometimes triggering fresh elections and often bringing down Ministries headed by members of the Royal Family. Sheikh Mishal, who until Saturday was the country’s Crown Prince, was declared as Kuwait’s 17th ruler by the Cabinet of Ministers on Saturday, hours after announcing the death of Sheikh Nawaf.

"While optimism surrounds the impending peace agreement, the cautionary inclusion of guarantees becomes crucial to forestall resurgent territorial claims", writes Vasif Huseynov in this op-ed for commonspace.eu citing a comment by president Aliyev on 6 December. "As the region braces for a historic peace agreement, the challenge lies in designing a comprehensive treaty that not only concludes hostilities but fosters enduring reconciliation between Azerbaijan and Armenia."

The United States has announced the establishment of Operation Prosperity Guardian, an important new multinational security initiative under the umbrella of the Combined Maritime Forces and the leadership of its Task Force 153, which focuses on security in the Red Sea. A Pentagon statement said that "Operation Prosperity Guardian is bringing together multiple countries to include the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain, to jointly address security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with the goal of ensuring freedom of navigation for all countries and bolstering regional security and prosperity.” The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza has spilled over into the Red Sea as Houthi rebels in Yemen, who control parts of the country including its capital and some of its Red Sea coastline, intensify their attacks on shipping passing through the Red Sea. BP on Monday, became the latest of a number of global companies that announced the suspension of use of the vital Red Sea route which connects the Gulf region and the Indian Ocean to Europe through the Suez Canal. The United States has condemned the attacks and promised decisive action to deal with them.  The Pentagon announced on Monday the formation of a new international mission focused on countering attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

"Despite hopes, Armenia and Azerbaijan failed to sign a peace agreement by the end of 2023", writes Benyamin Poghosyan in this op-ed for commonspace.eu. "However, since the text of the document seems to be, by and large, already agreed, there are hopes that an agreement may be signed in the first half of 2024. Otherwise, the EU and US election cycles in the Summer and Autumn of 2024 may push the South Caucasus out of the West's radar. If this happens, Russia may resume its leading role as a negotiation platform between Armenia and Azerbaijan, pushing the two sides to sign a peace agreement in Moscow by the end of 2024", he argues. 

For many months formal talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been in stagnation, writes Samir Hajizada in this op-ed for commonspace.eu. Then on 7 December, the two countries surprised the international community with a joint statement re-affirming commitment to the peace process and announcing confidence-building measures. A number of recent developments allow us to assume that the bilateral discussion format is finally gaining a real momentum. Thus, on December 14, the Government of Armenia has approved the regulations for the functioning of the delimitation commission- while a similar move is expected from Baku in the coming days. Moreover, on the same day Azerbaijani MFA issued a statement that normalisation of relations with Armenia seems realistic, and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan during his visit to Azerbaijan stated that peace between the countries is very close. The opportunities for a long-awaited breakthrough suddenly started to look bright at the end of the grim 2023.