The United States' failure to manage the Arab Spring revolutions coupled with its failure to enforce its red line following the Ghouta chemical attack raises questions among Saudi Arabia's ruling elite about Washington's reliability as an ally

It would be misleading to interpret the changes in the Arab world as isolated developments taking place in each and every country.

On January 14, 2011, Ben Ali fled Tunisia after 23 years in power, signaling the end of the distorted regional order in the Middle East and North Africa.

Turkey is so involved in developments in the Middle East that it cannot be a mere spectator to what is currently taking place.

Egypt has to confront military tutelage, economic crisis, regional order and international dynamics all while learning the particulars of democratic political competition.

The wave of uprisings that spread through North Africa, and the Middle East have brought our region to an interesting junction in terms of the proxy wars.

The world and Turkey, especially within the last five years, have experienced head-spinning events. In fact, the turbulent environment of the last five years does not indicate anything but an even more difficult year ahead.

The “New Egypt” will be shaped to a great extent by a “negotiation” process between the army and the political actors in opposition. It is likely that Egypt’s transition to democracy will be a long and difficult process.

America will only then - if indeed it wants - be free from the three answers or the single al-Assad answer outlined above!

What the Syrian regime fails to see is that this space carved between the political occupations of 2012 and geopolitical balances is about to expire.

Israel wants regime change in Syria, as much as it wanted a change in Egypt, the heart of the Camp David order, of which the Syrian regime is branch.

Syria has become one of the few friends Iran has left, after it was blatantly sanctioned by the West, the U.S and other states in the region after the Islamic revolution.

The final leg of support for the Syrian Ba’ath regime’s geopolitical comfort zone was the political climate generated by the other dictatorships in the area.

“Should al-Assad step down, disaster will ensue.” This assumption not only asserts that a region with al-Assad is possible, but it insists that it would in fact be better. Is that really so? 

The majority of those who claim that the Arab Spring has become an Arab Winter due to the violence that erupted in reaction to the obscene movie also happen to think that the Arab Spring itself was a motion picture.

Israel has been living in political déjà vu for some time now. It neither comprehends the transformation in the region, nor does it have the political capacity to analyze the future.

Syria today is a place where cities are being annihilated, tens of thousands civilians are being massacred, and hundreds of thousands are forced to become refugees.