In the Middle East’s diplomatic drama, Turkey takes centre stage

Turkey is closing out 2025 as a pivotal Middle Eastern power broker, its influence resurgent amid shifting alliances that have pushed Ankara to the centre of diplomacy spanning from Syria to Gaza.

Twelve months ago, few could have predicted the speed – and irony – with which the tides would turn in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s favour.

Just five years after the US imposed sanctions on Turkey for its military campaign against Kurdish separatists in Syria, Washington is now throwing its weight behind the new Ankara-backed government in Damascus – despite its leader’s problematic past.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, once the head of al-Qaeda in Syria, is set to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday in his capacity as a fellow head of state. It comes as the United States moves to lift sanctions imposed on Damascus during the reign of former dictator Bashar al-Assad, whose defeat last December ended a brutal 13-year civil war.

While the US embargo on defence sales to its Nato ally remains – a legacy of Turkey’s acquisition of Russian S-400 air defence systems – analysts anticipate its imminent repeal. Trump, who first imposed the sanctions, now views Erdogan as a linchpin of regional stability.