Abdallah AL DARDARI, Senior Advisor for reconstruction and rehabilitation in MENA, World Bank Group; Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs of Syria (2005-2011)
Alastair CROOKE, Director, Conflicts Forum
Ali NASSER MOHAMED, President of South Yemen (1980-1986)
Amal ABOU ZEID, Member of the Lebanese Parliament, Free Patriotic Movement
Amre MOUSSA, Secretary General of the League of Arab States (2001-2011); Foreign Minister of Egypt (1991-2001)
Andrey BYSTRITSKIY, Chairman of the Board, Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club
Andrey KORTUNOV, Director General, Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC)
Bakhtiar AMIN, Minister for Human Rights of Iraq (2004-2005)
Ebtesam AL-KETBI, Founder and President, Emirates Policy Center
Fyodor LUKYANOV, Research Director, Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club
Gürkan KUMBAROĞLU, Director of the Energy Policy Research Center, Boğaziçi University; President, Turkish Association for Energy Economics
Hasan Selim ÖZERTEM, Political Analyst, Ankara
Ilyas UMAKHANOV, Deputy Chairperson of the Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
Irina ZVYAGELSKAYA, Chief Research Fellow, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
Ismail OULD CHEIKH AHMED, Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary General for Yemen
Jamal KHASHOGGI, Writer (Saudi Arabia)
John BELL, Director of the Middle East and Mediterranean Programme, Toledo International Centre for Peace in Madrid
Leonid GRIGORYEV, Chief Adviser to the Head of the Analytical Centre under the Government of the Russian Federation
Mikhail BOGDANOV, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Mohammed MARANDI, Associate Professor, University of Tehran
Moshe YA'ALON, Minister of Defense of the State of Israel (2013-2016)
Nabil FAHMY, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt (2013-2014); Dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Nourhan ELSHEIKH, Professor of Political Science, Cairo University; Member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs
P. R. KUMARASWAMY, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Paul VALLELY, Major General, US Army (Ret); Chairman, Stand Up America and the Legacy National Security Advisory Group
Raghida DERGHAM, Founder and Executive Chairman, Beirut Institute; Columnist and New York Bureau Chief, Al Hayat
Said FERJANI, Member of the political bureau, Ennahdha Party (Tunisia)
Shaukat AZIZ, Prime Minister of Pakistan (2004-2007)
Valentina MATVIENKO, Chairperson of the Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
Vasily KUZNETSOV, Director, Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
Vitaly NAUMKIN, President of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Steven HEYDEMANN, Chair in Middle East Studies, Smith College; Nonresident Senior Fellow, Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution
Na’eem JEENAH, Executive director, Afro-Middle East Centre, South Africa
Sadiq AL-RIKABI, Member of the Iraqi Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee
Kayhan BARZEGAR, Director, Institute for Middle East Strategic Studies (IMESS) in Tehran
Taisuke ABIRU, Senior Representative, Representative Office in Moscow, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)