Emily Milliken

Eco­nom­ic and de­fence deals, along with the Turk­ish pres­i­dent’s per­son­al ties with re­gion­al lead­ers, to boost re­la­tions.

Many Arab states have ac­cept­ed that Bashar al-As­sad’s gov­ern­ment has sur­vived in Syr­ia, and want to re­turn to nor­mal­i­ty.

Ex­perts say many Arab gov­ern­ments see last month’s earth­quake dis­as­ter as rea­son to deep­en en­gage­ment with al-As­sad.

With a truce large­ly hold­ing, the coun­cil has been able to present it­self as work­ing to­wards a diplo­mat­ic so­lu­tion.

De­spite ru­mours that Rus­sia’s Wag­n­er will fight in Ukraine, an­a­lysts ex­pect the para­mil­i­tary group to stay in Libya.

The pres­ence of both Turk­ish and Russ­ian forces in the North African coun­try is deeply un­set­tling to Eu­ro­pean pow­ers.