The 2021-2022 “De-Escalation Moment” in the Middle East: A Net Assessment

Abstract

Starting the end of 2020, the Middle East has witnessed an unprecedented de-escalation among its key regional rivals. Several major players, including Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Israel, the UAE, and Qatar, have been reaching out to one another to rec-oncile and normalize relations, thus signaling a regional reset. As a result, a rare positive, constructive, and responsible trend of diplomatic engagement has been emerging, prompting the question of whether these reconciliatory and normalization processes will be a temporary situation or a new norm in the region. While investigating this question, the article discusses the rapprochement efforts, reconcil-iatory initiatives, and normalization processes between the key players in the Middle East from 2021 to 2022. It offers a net assessment of the situation, reviews comprehensively the diplomatic breakthroughs related to the cases in question, explains the primary motives and drivers of involved countries, and highlights the challenges that will likely encounter them. The article concludes by anticipating the pros-pects of these developments.