Abstract
Though no major war was witnessed in the Middle East in 2022, the underlying factors of insecurity and instability persisted. The region fluctuated between stability and volatility on account of interstate and state-society tensions and conflicts. Non-state violent actors like Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) continued to grow in the region’s conflict zones and ungoverned spaces, despite their leaders’ decapitation in Syria and Afghanistan. At the same time, the Iran-Israel tensions lingered and were at risk of morphing into a full-blown crisis. Likewise, the Iran-Saudi relations showed possible signs of rapprochement, but a breakthrough looked distant. The anti-hijab protests in Iran looked threatening for the clerical regime. In sum, a discomforting calm loomed over the Middle East throughout the year amid several push and pull factors, which can keep the region an area of serious concern in world politics.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages | 97-102 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Volume | 15 |
| No. | 1 |
| Specialist publication | Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses |
| Publisher | International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2023 |
