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The Middle East is going through a new phase of developments, an Armenian arabologist told a news conference on Wednesday, adding now when the military operations are over the region has embarked on the stage of political action.

According to Hayk Kocharyan, the trilateral meeting held in Russia’s Sochi last week, as well as the phone talks between the leaders of a number of regional countries and superpowers come to show Russia is trying to meddle in the political processes in the region, intending to somehow direct or outline the development prospects.

The speaker named two types of political processes ongoing on the region – Geneva and Astana processes. “Bashar al-Assad has firmly taken hold on the negotiating table trying to change the situation. The region is seeing rapid changes in the recent period; a power crystallization process is ongoing in Saudi Arabia, and the young crown prince seems to succeed in keeping power in his hands and consolidating it. Here we see good personal relations between the crown prince and the Russian president, which also benefits the talks over Syria,” the expert noted.

He also highlighted Saudi Arabia is now more engaged in its domestic affairs and cannot deal with other regional issues, which is used by other players. 

In Kocharyan’s words, the Islamic State as such is out of Syria’s political map, adding although the former will continue its terror actions in different corners.

The arabologist stated Armenia has found itself in quite an interesting situation following the regional shifts, facing fresh opportunities as evidenced by the recent increased interest shown by Israel towards the country and the newly signed Armenia-EU deal, which also creates new opportunities for other regional players in terms of the market.

“Thus, good opportunities have emerged, and time will show whether we will use them or not,” he added.