Analyses
Ramin Jahanbegloo: “The Iranian People Are Tired of Dying Because of the Ayatollahs”
Giancarlo Bosetti 21 June 2025
Ramin Jahanbegloo, one of Iran’s preeminent intellectual figures, attends the conference ‘Peace, Democracy and Human Rights in Asia’ held under the auspices of former Czech president Vaclav Havel on September 11, 2009, in Prague. Other guests of this conference are Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, former President of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Frederik Willem de Klerk, Rabiya Kadeer, head of the World Uighur Congress, Robert Menard of France, former Secretary-General of Reporters Without Bord and others philosophers and disidents.AFP PHOTO MICHAL CIZEK (Photo by MICHAL CIZEK / AFP)
  • Yuli Tamir: “Arab States and the Palestinian Authority Must Lead Beyond Hamas”
    Alessandra Tommasi 6 November 2025
    The ceasefire in Gaza, tied to Donald Trump’s 20-point plan, remains extremely fragile amid repeated violations. Among the latest escalations, an Israeli air raid overnight between October 28 and 29, launched in retaliation for the death of an IDF soldier and Hamas’s refusal to return the bodies of hostages, left more than a hundred people dead. While Hamas accuses Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of obstructing the entry of humanitarian convoys, uncertainty looms over the so-called “phase two” of the plan. On paper, the Palestinian group has agreed to relinquish direct control of the enclave, but not full demilitarization nor the international supervision envisaged by Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace.” The plan also makes no mention of the West Bank, fueling fears that Israel intends to solidify the separation between the two Palestinian territories. In this context, Reset DOC spoke with Yuli Tamir, former Israeli education minister, to discuss the prospects for peace and Israel’s political future.
  • Iran: The End of the Axis and Strategic Adaptation
    Pegah Zohouri 6 November 2025
    Over the past two years, Iran has suffered the most significant blows to its deterrence capacity since the founding of the Islamic Republic, losing much of the regional influence it once wielded through loyal proxies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and even Yemen. Once able to mobilize allied forces across the Middle East in pursuit of shared interests against Israel, Tehran now faces a drastically diminished strategic position. Following Hamas’s October 2023 attacks, Israel systematically targeted Iranian proxies—crippling Hamas in Gaza, weakening Hezbollah in Lebanon, and, with the collapse of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in December 2024, depriving Iran of its crucial Syrian ally. Subsequent Israeli strikes deep into Iranian territory further exposed Tehran’s intelligence failures, limited military reach, and diplomatic isolation. Yet the current retrenchment of Iran and its allies does not signify collapse; rather, it represents a phase of strategic recalibration within an evolving regional order characterized by multi-alignment and shifting power centers.
  • Cengiz Aktar: “Turkey Confronts Tel Aviv’s New Regional Hegemony”
    Alessandra Tommasi 6 November 2025
    Over the past decade, Turkey has tried to carve out a role as a regional power, swinging between neo-Ottoman ambition and economic pragmatism. Ankara has multiplied its interventions: backing Qatar, confronting the Kurds in Iraq and Syria, and deepening its involvement in Libya. Yet since October 7, 2023, the balance of power in the Middle East has shifted again. The Gaza war, the reshuffling of alliances, and the weakening of the so-called “axis of resistance” have all curbed Ankara’s claims to leadership, according to Cengiz Aktar, Turkish dissident and professor of Political Science at the University of Athens, in an interview with Reset DOC.
  • Olivier Roy: “Israel Made a Palestinian State Impossible”
    Alessandra Tommasi 6 November 2025
    Two years after October 7, the Middle East is undergoing a profound transformation. Israeli assertiveness, Iran’s weakening influence, and the reshaping of al-Sharaa’s Syria are redefining the regional balance, while fragile truces and new hierarchies of power reveal a landscape still in flux. In this context, French political scientist and leading expert on political Islam, Olivier Roy, reflects for Reset DOC on the region’s prospects, the deadlock of the Palestinian question, and the evolving relationship between Israel and its neighbors.
  • What Now for the Middle East?
    Pasquale Ferrara 6 November 2025
    What are the defining features of the hypothetical “new Middle East” emerging after the tragic events of October 7, 2023? Beyond the unspeakable tragedy unfolding in Gaza—a catastrophe not only of immense humanitarian proportions but also of deep political inconsistency—several recent developments stand out. These markers help illuminate the ongoing attempt to reshape the region, not necessarily toward lasting stability, but more plausibly toward a provisional armistice. Such a phase, though conditional, would nonetheless be welcome if it could create the groundwork for a genuine space for negotiation on the fundamental issues of the conflict.
  • The Gulf Between Defending the Vision Frameworks and a New Security Architecture
    Luca Marin 6 November 2025
    Two years after the events of October 7, 2023, the Middle East is undergoing a profound phase of redefinition. The conflict between Israel and Hamas, rising tensions with Iran, and intensifying global competition have prompted the Gulf countries to reassess their strategic priorities. In this context, the perspective of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) revolves around two central axes: the protection of their domestic transformation programs—the so-called Visions—and the safeguarding of security within an increasingly multipolar environment.
  • Syria and Lebanon: A Test of Sovereignty
    Riccardo Cristiano 6 November 2025
    The scale of the transformation that has swept across Syria and Lebanon after the upheavals of 2024 can be grasped in what is not a mere a detail: Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani paid an official visit to Beirut to define the new judicial agreement between the two countries. For the Assads, Lebanon was at best a protectorate. The fall of Bashar al-Assad and the elimination of the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, along with the entire chain of command of the Party of God, have marked a turning point. But Syria still does not know where it is headed, and Lebanon is not sure it can stand on its own; both remain in the grips of economic collapse. The real novelty is that the international community continues to support them, even if the Saudis, the main donors, are clearly hinting that they expect greater awareness from both Syrian and Lebanese leaders.
  • Rethinking the Liberal Tradition
    Lea Ypi 31 October 2025
    A key concept on which our understanding of democracy relies is freedom. Yet freedom has recently also become something of an embarrassment to the global Left, a notion more easily appropriated by the Right, in its defense of individual rights in contrast to shared social norms. I would like to reflect on what a robust idea of freedom for the Left might look like, and why it is necessary to recover it, rather than trying to do away with it. And I want to raise that question in a way that urges us to reflect on both micro-history and macro-history: how world historical events shape and constrain the lives of individuals who happen to be caught up in them, and how existing political institutions try and fail to promote certain moral ideals.
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