This week, in a special episode of Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Middle East Program senior fellow Natasha Hall about the aftermath of the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. They talk about the aid response, how governments are instrumentalizing the aid response to advance their own goals, and the challenges in delivering aid to areas of northwest Syr ... Show More
May 22
Babel Special: Jon Alterman's Next Chapter
This week on a special edition of Babel, Will Todman speaks with Jon Alterman, the creator of Babel and the show’s host since it began in 2019. They discuss Jon’s reflections on 22 years directing the CSIS Middle East Program, his analysis of how the Middle East policy ecosystem ... Show More
34m 59s
May 15
Mohanad Hage Ali: Hezbollah and the Captagon Trade
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Dr. Mohanad Hage Ali, deputy director for research at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. Mohanad's latest paper for Carnegie investigates the rise of a new form of drug smuggling in Lebanon. Together, they discuss Hezbollah’s i ... Show More
50m 16s
May 8
Analysis: Will Trump’s Houthi Deal Stick?
On Tuesday, May 6, President Trump declared that the United States would immediately halt its bombing of Houthi targets, bringing an end to months of intensified U.S. strikes across Yemen. The president linked the policy reversal to what he described as the Iran-backed Houthis’ c ... Show More
6m 13s
Feb 2023
A Crisis Within a Crisis in Syria
When a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Syria and Turkey last week, it killed thousands and created a crisis within a crisis.International aid began pouring into Turkey, but northwestern Syria, which was also hard-hit, received only a trickle. It was a bitter blow for Syrians, whose ... Show More
26m 28s
Feb 2023
The Struggle For Aid In Syria
The first aid deliveries has started to arrive in Syria after Monday’s deadly earthquakes.Adam speaks to Syrian director, Waad Al-Kateab, who directed of the award winning documentary ‘For Sama’, and her husband Hamza Al-Kateab, a doctor and human rights activist, who say much mo ... Show More
29m 33s
May 2023
The rehabilitation of Syria’s President Assad
This week a meeting of Arab foreign ministers - including Syria's - took place in Jordan's capital, Amman. Officials have been discussing Syria's potential return to the Arab League, after 12 years of civil war. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are dead, millions are refugees abr ... Show More
48m 59s