Is Peace Breaking out in the Middle East? | NonZero World feat. Matthew Petti
Robert Wright's Nonzero
Nonzero
4.7 • 618 Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
0:30 Headlines 5:25 Why the PKK's disbanding should be the biggest news of the week 10:22 How did Turkey get the PKK to lay down arms? 13:47 A breakthrough for Turkey-Iraq relations 20:35 How Syrian Kurds are trying to make nice with Damascus 27:09 The end of US sanctions on Syria 34:29 Rebuilding a shattered state 37:42 Turkey and Israel: Syria caught in the middle
Recorded May 16, 2025.
Read this week's edition of the Earthling: https://www.nonzero.org/p/a-monumental-week-in-the-middle-east
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to Non-Zero World. |
| 0:04.0 | I'm your host, Connor Eccles. |
| 0:07.0 | Each week, I break down the latest developments in U.S. foreign policy and other global news, |
| 0:14.0 | and I interview a leading expert or activist. |
| 0:17.0 | To gain access to full-length episodes and other exclusive content, |
| 0:27.1 | become an NZN member today at Robert Wright's Non-Zero Newsletter at NONZero.org. |
| 0:32.2 | Hello and welcome to Non-Zero World. |
| 0:33.8 | I'm your host, Connor Eccles. |
| 0:38.7 | In a few minutes, I'll be joined by Matthew Petty of Reason Magazine to discuss what has been a monumental week in the Middle East for some reasons that have been very widely |
| 0:43.8 | reported and a few that have gone fairly under the radar. So that will be a great conversation. |
| 0:49.9 | But first, here are this week's headlines. |
| 0:54.5 | The Kurdistan Workers Party, often referred to simply as the PKK, announced that it will end its decades-long insurgency against the Turkish government, bringing, quote, hope of regional stability, end quote, in the Middle East, according to Reuters. |
| 1:08.7 | The decision, overshadowed by President Trump's visit |
| 1:11.3 | to the region this week, removes a key flashpoint in Turkey's relations with its neighbors |
| 1:16.2 | in Iraq, where PKK fighters have long hidden out in mountain bases. It will also make it much |
| 1:22.2 | easier, according to one analyst, for Kurdish militants in Syria to cooperate with the new |
| 1:27.3 | government in Damascus, |
| 1:28.8 | which is backed by Turkey. |
| 1:30.3 | President Trump promised to lift sanctions on Syria in a step the country's foreign minister |
| 1:35.1 | praised as, quote, a new beginning on the path to reconstruction, end quote, after a brutal |
| 1:41.0 | civil war. |
| 1:41.7 | Trump later met with Syrian President Ahmed Ashara, making it the first U.S. Syria presidential |
... |
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