It’s with very heavy hearts that we bring you the 100th and final ‘Middle East Analysis’ podcast.

Our MENA region audio series with the international lawyer and analyst Dr Harry Hagopian has covered so much ground over the past six years.

We sign off by looking over our shoulders to an extraordinary moment in history, to the series of popular uprisings then termed the ‘Arab Spring’.

We then walk briefly – making broad brush strokes – through what we have covered since 2011 before casting an eye to the future.

It has been a privilege to discuss this beautiful yet tumultuous region with its rich cultural heritage and extraordinary people with the ebullient and knowledgeable Armenian that is Dr Harry Hagopian.

Despots have come and gone on our watch and we’ve discussed terror attacks, extremist groups, claims on land, bids for statehood and international claws in the MENA region – as Dr Hagopian puts it in this podcast, “Machiavellian intrigues cooked up in foreign kitchens”.

However, we have talked on many more occasions about the people of the Middle East and North Africa – the triumph of the human spirit, the will to coexist in peace and the two peoples and three faiths of the region. Perhaps the will of the peace-loving majority will one day be realised.

It remains to thank you so much for listening – whether it’s today for the first time, dipping in from time-to-time, or loyally throughout.