Dr. Sinem Cengiz

Saudi Arabia recently announced the creation of a multinational maritime defense coalition to help safeguard freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait. Fourteen countries backed the initiative in a joint statement, including Turkiye.

Tensions in the Red Sea have started to escalate after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement declared what it described as a complete naval blockade on Saudi Arabia and intensified missile and drone attacks against Saudi oil tankers.

The past two months have brought a flurry of developments in Turkiye’s relations with both Egypt and Syria. Although these are separate bilateral tracks, when viewed together they reveal that Ankara’s growing ties with Cairo and Damascus have become a pillar of its southern regional policy.

Israel appears to be pulling every lever at once in an attempt to pressure Turkiye, challenging its interests on every front — from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Levant and from the Horn of Africa to the South Caucasus.

In 2013, Micheal Krepon wrote an essay in which he argued that the US, since 1945, has generally failed to end wars victoriously and decisively — with the exception of the first Gulf war against Saddam Hussein.