Türkiye and the Levant

A Syrian-Israeli ministerial meeting is taking place on Thursday 31 July in Baku to discuss security matters in southern Syria, a diplomat told AFP. The meeting between Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer follows a similar meeting between the two ministers in Paris last week. It will take place after an unprecedented visit by al-Shaibani to Moscow on Thursday, added the diplomat, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. Israel and Syria have technically been at war since 1948.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned both the 7 October Hamas attacks and what he described as the “obliteration” of Gaza, including mass civilian casualties, starvation and destruction of infrastructure. Guterres was addressing the  High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution that is being convened at the UN Headquarters in New York between 28 and 30 July. The UN chief urged world leaders to ensure the conference becomes a turning point for irreversible progress toward a two-State solution, calling it the only credible path to peace based on international law. Mandated by the General Assembly of the UN, the meeting features plenaries, working groups and interventions from senior UN officials and Member States.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced on X last night (24 July) that France will officially recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September. He described this as a "solemn" act in support of a lasting and just peace in the Middle East.

Israel’s isolation is increasing as twenty eight countries including the United Kingdom and a majority of Member States of the European Union issued a joint statement on Monday 21 July saying the war in Gaza “must end now” and condemning Israel over 'inhumane killing' of Gaza civilians seeking aid. The foreign ministers of countries, also including Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Japan, said “the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths.” The statement described as “horrifying” the recent deaths of over 800 Palestinians who were seeking aid, according to the figures released by Gaza’s Health Ministry and the U.N. human rights office.

More than 1,100 people, most of them Druze fighters, civilians and government security personnel, have been killed in clashes erupted on July 13 in Syria's Druze-majority province of Sweida, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor. Clashes between local fighters and Sunni Bedouin, spiralled and drew in Syrian government forces, tribal allies of the Bedouin and the military of neighbouring Israel. According to the United Nations, the violence has displaced more than 128,000 people, an issue that has also made collecting and identifying bodies more difficult.

Last month, TIME magazine ran a cover story entitled “A New Middle East Is Unfolding before our eyes”. “The middle of what? East of where?”, asks Tim Marshall in his seminal book ‘Prisoners of Geography’, before quickly reminding us that “The Middle East is one of those places where the past is now”.