The MENA Mix: Regional Recap is a monthly video podcast, produced by the Institute for Middle East Options (IMEO). Each episode features rotating experts who unpack and analyze key news stories shaping the Middle East and North Africa.
Our August episode brought together Oubab Khalil (Khalil Group Founder and IMEO Non-Resident Fellow) and Elizabeth Tsurkov (New Lines Institute Senior Non-Resident Fellow). They examined whether the Iran-Israel-U.S. conflict is headed toward renewed escalation, considering Iran’s resilience and how governments and societies are adapting to prolonged instability. The conversation also explored Israel’s upcoming elections, the political marginalization of Arab parties, and the prospects for a two-state solution; Iraq’s efforts to navigate between Iran and its Arab neighbors; and the implications of the U.S. decision to remove Syria from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. They concluded by turning to Lebanon and the prospects for Hezbollah’s disarmament, examining the political obstacles to extending greater state authority over the country’s security.
Oubab Khalil is a Syrian-American policy advisor, entrepreneur, lawyer, and IMEO Non-Resident Fellow with more than a decade of experience in Syrian political affairs, regional security, conflict resolution, and Track 2 diplomacy. He is the founder and CEO of Khalil Law Group, an independent advisory practice specializing in Middle East and North Africa affairs, counterterrorism, and cross-border engagement. From 2013 to 2018, Mr. Khalil served as chief of staff for the U.S. Foreign Mission of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, where he engaged with U.S. government officials, Congress, diplomats, think tanks, and Syrian-American stakeholders and supported the Coalition's participation in the Geneva peace process. His experience also includes work on security sector reform and longstanding participation in Track 2 dialogue and public policy initiatives focused on Syria and the wider region.
Elizabeth Tsurkov is a senior non-resident fellow at the New Lines Institute, a DC-based think tank, and a research fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking, an Israeli-Palestinian think tank. Her research focuses on Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel, and Palestine, with particular attention to the lived experiences of people across the region. Her work draws on extensive fieldwork and a broad network of contacts among civilians, activists, and political, communal, and military actors across the Middle East. Ms. Tsurkov is also a PhD candidate in Princeton University’s Department of Politics, where her research focuses on clientelism in the Levant. She has more than a decade of experience working with human rights organizations in the region, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, The New York Review of Books, Haaretz, and Foreign Policy, among other publications. She speaks English, Hebrew, Russian, and Arabic.
