In this week’s episode of the Middle East Weekly podcast, we discuss the worsening humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta, Syria, where over 1,000 people have been killed in 2 weeks and 400,000 families are living under siege, as Bashar al Assad’s forces attack the rebel-held city. Why does it feel like no one is taking action to put an end to the humanitarian suffering in Ghouta? JMEPP’s editors discuss the reasons for UN inaction and the limited options available to international actors. For more reading, we recommend the New York Times’ piece from March 3rd on compassion fatigue and the devastation of the war in Syria.
In our second story, Mariam Ghanem updates listeners on the state of the field for the Egyptian presidential elections, which are scheduled to take place between March 26th and March 28th. Sisi has an official “challenger”, Moussa Mostafa Moussa, but is he just a prop to give the election a democratic feel?
The reporting in this week’s podcast was done by Mohamad Saleh, Blaire Byg, Anna Boots, Mariam Ghanem, and Nicholas Norberg. Stay tuned for our next episode in two weeks!