In the last couple of years, many different events took place in the Middle East, resulting in major headlines. Some of these events impact us every day, from rising oil prices to strains in the supply chain. Many of these events have long back stories, which can be very confusing. For example, I still struggle with understanding all of the involved parties in the Syrian civil war. And with 21st-century technology, the daily aspects of our lives have changed seriously, as we can now get detailed videos and pictures instantaneously. Read on for a summary of some of the major recent news out of the Middle East.

Cop29 in Azerbaijan

The Conference of the Parties (COP), is held annually, with the Presidency rotating between the five recognized UN regions. From November 11th to the 22nd, world leaders met in Baku, Azerbaijan, the selected host for 2024, and began the COP29 conference. At the conference, developed countries agreed to support developing countries with a goal of $1.3 trillion per year! For comparison, the U.S. spends about $918 billion on its military per year. Many criticized the financial goal for being too small, and a lack of progress on COP28’s goal of transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The official host nation for COP30 is Brazil, with the 2025 conference to be held in Belém, near the Amazon Rainforest, from November 10th to 21st, 2025.

Iran-Israel Hot and Cold Wars

On October 28, Israel performed a massive strike on Iran – the first direct attack on Iran in over a decade- and caused massive chaos. Attacks included missile strikes, drone strikes, and air strikes including Israel’s F-35I ‘Adir’ and F-15I ‘Ra’am’, some of the world’s most advanced fighter jets. The results of these strikes were catastrophic for Iran. Many air defense systems defending the capital, Tehran, from attacks were destroyed or seriously damaged. According to the BBC, “The IDF’s strikes, which came in several waves over a three-hour period, involved scores of aircraft, including jets and drones.” Why these attacks were performed was because of Iranian strikes against Israel, involving the use of over 300 missiles, which again, was a first for Iran since decades ago.

Using satellite images, it is observable that the results of the strikes were devastating. Israel was able to hit two secret Iranian bases, with one, the Parchin base, was once linked to Iran’s secret Nuclear program. Also, other attacks on Iran included destruction of S-300 missile systems that were in charge of defending Tehran, the capital of Iran, from Aerial attacks. Other attacked sites include a radar site in the southwest of Iran, and a training camp for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, known as the IRGC, which is a branch of the Iranian armed forces. Significant damage was reported by Israel, which Iran continued to deny, and severed Iran’s air defense capabilities. This strike heightened tensions between the Iran-Israel “Cold War”, also known as a proxy conflict, which has been going on since 1989, after the Iranian revolution. This conflict is decades old, and is similar to the U.S.- U.S.S.R. cold war. Now one difference between these two cold wars is that Iran lacks nuclear capabilities, while Israel is rumored to have stockpiles of nuclear weapons. This breaking point of decades of cold war is a successful attack and also contributed to Iran’s bad year.

Red Sea Crisis

Have you noticed the rise of oil prices, or found it hard to get wheat and milk? Food prices steeply rose after the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas, due to Israel’s strikes on Hamas, the Houthi movement in Yemen protested Israel’s invasion of Gaza by launching a series of armed drone and missile attacks, drawing hundreds of retaliatory airstrikes by the U.S. and its partners. The Houthi movement, a radicalized group that has been fighting the Yemeni government since 2014, has dozens of aerial and naval assets including drones and helicopters. The movement is designated as a terrorist organization by some countries. One of the more serious attacks, the hijacking of a commercial ship has severely decreased the amount of ships heading through the region.

About 12 major shipping countries have temporarily suspended or ceased ships heading towards the region. In response to the escalation of retaliatory strikes, the Houthi movement began to attack dozens of ships in the Red Sea, one of the busiest shipping lanes connecting Asia to Europe, causing chaos in the shipping lanes, and severely disturbing fragile trading networks. The U.S. responded with many operations including Operation Prosper Guardian. Operation Prosper Guardian is a U.S. Multinational military intervention in the Red Sea. Many countries have sent fractions of their navy to intercept Houthi drones and missiles. As a consequence of the attacks, Global shipping has decreased, with many cargo ships rerouting to the tip of Africa, unfortunately leading to rising food prices. The Houthi movement has refused to stop these dangerous attacks until Israel ends its war in Gaza, which is still ongoing. In the future, we can hopefully expect a de-escalation of the crisis and the resumption of regular shipping routes.

Israel and Lebanon
As of October 2024, Israel has invaded Lebanon a total of 6 times since the 1970s. The reason why is similar for each invasion. In September 1970, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was expelled from Jordan, in what would come to be known as Black Saturday. The king of Jordan at the time, Hussein bin Talal, ordered the expulsion of the PLO following the Dawson field Hijackings. The Dawson Fields hijackings were a series of highly coordinated aircraft hijackings, which were successful in bringing four planes to a remote airstrip in Jordan, and blowing them up. Even though only a singular hijacker died, it quickly fed up the Jordanian government, and the events of Black September was an expulsion of PLO troops. After the PLO was expelled, the only nearby country was neighboring Lebanon. From there, they resumed their attacks on Israel. Israel quickly responded, invading Lebanon along with dozens of retaliatory air strikes.
Most invasions between 1970 and 1982 were due to the PLO’s constant attack on Israel. However, in 1982, the PLO withdrew its forces from Lebanon, after the 1982 Israeli invasion, and promptly after, modern-day Hezbollah was founded. From 1992 to 2006, Israel began a series of invasions and airstrikes, killing thousands of Lebanese citizens in the process. In 2006, a 34-day armed conflict between Hezbollah and Israel occurred due to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, and the killing of eight others. This war was similar to the 1982 Lebanon war, except that Israel was fighting the PLO, not Hezbollah.
After the war, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, also known as UNIFL, patrolled through Lebanon and attempted to prevent Hezbollah from getting stronger. Hezbollah has since gained more weapons– around 40,000 today, up from 13,000 before 2006 – and rained many of these weapons down on Israel since October 7th. Most of these weapons have Iranian and Russian origin. Since then, Israel began the ongoing 6th invasion of Lebanon, for similar reasons to the preceding invasions – getting rid of organizations that are attacking the state of Israel. A shaky ceasefire was agreed to between the countries in November, 2024. It is unclear if it will hold.

Syrian Rebels Topple Assad

For the past 13 years, the Syrian civil war ravaged Syria, and over that time, the conflict spilled over into many surrounding countries. By November 30, 2024, a new offensive began, the offensive that many believed would end the Syrian civil war. By December 8th, the 54-year rule of the Al Assad family, starting with Hafez Al Assad in the 1970s, and continuing with Bashar Al Assad, his son, until this month. Many rebel forces forced Bashar Al Assad to flee the country. From Kurds in the north, and the Free Syrian Army from the south and west. The war in Syria is a complicated war, with many parties fighting for control. The Syrian Democratic Forces, known as the SDF, is a Kurdish backed group in the north-eastern part of the country. Then there is the Free Syrian Army, which is the main group behind the 2024 offensive. After that, the Islamic State, referred to as ISIS, has also invaded the southern part of the country, taking advantage of the chaos in the country. And finally, there is the Assad government, in charge of Syria from the late 1970s! The Syrian Civil War itself was linked to uprisings known as the Arab Spring uprisings. The killing of innocent and peaceful protesters led to many Western governments supporting the rebels. During the war, about 300,000 civilians were killed.

Many of these offensives were successful. The overall offensive, from the northern front and southern front known as the Hama offensive, was a majority success. Many key parts in the offensive, including the fall of Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, and also the capture of many neighborhoods surrounding Damascus, the capital of Syria. In under two weeks, rebel forces pushed through these cities, capturing one after another before surrounding Damascus. By December 7th, the Syrian government was trapped in the capital. On the 8th of December, Syria was under the control of Opposition groups as Assad was forced to flee. However, he was able to create a fake plane crash story, while distracting most of the world while he fled to Russia. Rebels were squeezing out the state forces within the city, and locals celebrated every rebel advance. Some people looted the presidential palace, while others went to search for Assad’s notorious prisons and free loved ones. Syrians across the world celebrated the success and freedom of Syria. From Manchester to New York, Syrians have hope for a new era for their country.

Unfortunately, it seems like the conflict is far from over. In the first paragraph, I noted that there was not just one or two sides battling, but four parties fighting for Syria. Now that the main rebels (Free Syrian Army) have defeated the government forces of Al-Assad, they are now fighting the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Turkey has also begun to attack the Kurdish-backed group. Along with this, there has been mass looting across Syria, with the rebel group attempting to deploy forces, but have remained unsuccessful. Overall, the situation in Syria is hopeful but troublesome.

Conclusion

One particular country that had a bad year was Iran. Iran’s first low was the failed attack on Israel, Iran launched over 300 missiles and drones, yet few reached Israel. Then in May, Ebrahim Raisi, the President of Iran died in a helicopter crash. After that, in July, Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas official, was assassinated in Tehran. Then in November, Hezbollah was severely degraded, due to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. Following that, came Assad’s downfall in December. Iran had depleted most of its resources into Hamas and Hezbollah, and it could not do anything in Syria. Iran quickly moved all of its officials out, but the Embassy in Syria was looted and destroyed.
Finally, the return of Donald Trump will likely shake things up in the region even further. Donald Trump during his 2016-2020 Presidency did many things to Iran. First, he ended the Iran Nuclear Deal. He also ordered the Assassination of the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) Quds Force commander, Quasam Solemani, who was an Iranian commander in many wars, including the Lebanese civil war, the Syrian civil war, and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Overall, the events of the last year and the future for Iran is pretty bleak.

Many of these conflicts injure and kill millions of civilians every year. Civilians who are either rebuilding or just trying to live their lives. Some civilians in Beirut are rebuilding their houses for the fourth time, and others are too injured to even get out of the hospital bed. Many of these civilians do and do not support the government that is in charge of them. The Syrian uprisings in 2011 were an example of that, but the peaceful protesters were crushed by Assad’s government forces. Other events even affect us, like the Red Sea Crisis, which severely disrupted trade networks across the globe. Even though countries are trying to intervene, It is extremely difficult to perform that task. There were some good events, like COP29 in Baku, which promised trillions of dollars in funding for developing countries in need, yet they lacked progress on the previous COP’s goal. In all of these events, countries had their ups and downs. But the future of Middle East peace remains elusive.