AL-Monitor Senior Correspondent Amberin Zaman interviews newsmakers, journalists, and thought leaders from the US and Middle East about the latest news and trends in the region. Amberin travels the region for AL-Monitor, specializing in news and analysis in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and the Caucasus and writes the weekly Turkey Briefing newsletter. Prior to AL-Monitor, she covered Turkey, the Kurds, and conflicts in the region for The Washington Post, The Daily Telegraph, The Los Angeles Times and the Voice of America, and was The Economist's Turkey correspondent from 1999 to 2016.
Charles Lister, the head of the Syria Initiative at the Middle East Institute in Washington, argues that after five months in power Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the ultimate pragmatist, is adjusting to the complexity of governing his ethnically diverse and fractured country. This involves striking deals with the Kurds and Druze that fly in the face of the rigidly centralized model he once espoused. And contrary to popular belief he is not a "Turkish puppet,” Lister says.
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