Al Majalla | The Leading Arab Magazine

Special coverage

Israel's war on Gaza and regional fallout

Plumes of smoke rise from the sites of Israeli airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut on 3 March 2026.

Lebanon front opens up amid US-Iran war

Attacks by Hezbollah and an Iraqi militia appear to be a calculated step by Tehran to widen the arena of conflict in a bid to raise the costs for its adversaries

Elie Kossaifi and Fayza Diab

Al Majalla

Profiles

Alireza Arafi: the cleric charged with selecting Iran's next Supreme Leader

A clerical member of the Guardian Council, he was selected to serve on the Leadership Council along with President Masoud Pezeshkian and Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei

Alex Vatanka

Reuters /Al Majalla

SPECIAL COVERAGE

Trump is betraying his base by waging war on Iran

Politics

Voters were promised America First, not Bush-era interventions

Emma Ashford

Khamenei's killing opens up a strategic abyss

Iran’s strategy for war with the US

US-Israel attack Iran but end goal remains unclear

US-Iran war: economic costs already start to stack up

Trump has few good options on Iran

Donald Trump is channelling George W. Bush

Latest

Politics

Politics

Operation Epic Fury: the point of no return

Michael Horowitz

Politics

Why Ethiopia's presence on the Red Sea is a red line for Egypt

Amr Emam

Profiles

Ali Khamenei: the guardian of Iran's strategic patience doctrine

Arash Azizi

Popular
Editor's Pick

Deena So Oteh

Politics

Khamenei's killing opens up a strategic abyss

01 March 2026

Gulf states' delicate balancing act—maintaining security partnerships with the US while cautiously reopening channels to Iran—has been shattered

Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy

Reuters /Al Majalla

Politics

Trump is betraying his base by waging war on Iran

02 March 2026

Voters were promised America First, not Bush-era interventions

Emma Ashford

Al Majalla

Business & Economy

US-Iran war: economic costs already start to stack up

01 March 2026

Al Majalla lays out three possible scenarios for how the conflict unfolds, along with their associated costs

Mohamed Sharki

Sara Padovan

Politics

Operation Epic Fury: the point of no return

28 February 2026

The US and Israel carried out strikes across Iran, and Tehran has retaliated by striking US/Israeli assets across the region. Could this turn into the regional war analysts have been warning about?

Michael Horowitz

Al Majalla

Profiles

Alireza Arafi: the cleric charged with selecting Iran's next Supreme Leader

02 March 2026

A clerical member of the Guardian Council, he was selected to serve on the Leadership Council along with President Masoud Pezeshkian and Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei

Alex Vatanka

When he sat in his isolated office negotiating with history

Ibrahim Hamidi

Sharaa’s amnesty decree tests Syria’s constitutional order

Haid Haid

Deal or no deal? Iran's fate hangs in the balance amid US military buildup

Con Coughlin

Ukraine war outcome comes with a chilling message

Houssam Itani

Infographics

Markets brace for possible oil shock amid US-Iran war

Politics

Israel's race towards regime change in Iran

Israel and the United States are three days into the most consequential military campaign in the Middle East since the 2003 Iraq invasion—a joint…

Michael Horowitz

Lebanon front opens up amid US-Iran war

The US-Iran war that began on Saturday, 28 February, when Washington and Tel Aviv launched surprise attacks on Iran, officially expanded to Lebanon…

Elie Kossaifi and Fayza Diab

Trump is betraying his base by waging war on Iran

On Saturday, US President Donald Trump, head of the Board of Peace, winner of the FIFA Peace Prize, and ardent opponent of America’s pointless wars…

Emma Ashford

Khamenei's killing opens up a strategic abyss

For years, I have argued that the Islamic Republic of Iran was approaching a strategic breaking point. That moment has now arrived—but not in the way…

Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy

Profile

Alireza Arafi: the cleric charged with selecting Iran's next Supreme Leader

Following the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US and Israeli military strikes on 28 February 2026, a three-member…

Alex Vatanka

A vendor sells merchandise to people paying their respects to the late civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson outside of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition national headquarters on 27 February 2026 in Chicago, Illinois.

Jesse Jackson made a black president possible

He heard the crack of the gun. Then saw the impact: blood gushing from the neck and jaw, the tie blown off. The date was 4 April 1968; the place was…

The Economist

Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny performs during Super Bowl LX Patriots vs Seahawks Apple Music Halftime Show at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on 8 February 2026.

Bad Bunny: the unapologetic Puerto Rican pop star

The Super Bowl is supposed to be a familiar ritual: a crowded stadium, a television audience in the hundreds of millions, and a halftime show…

Stefanie Butendieck Hijerra

Dina Powell: politics, capital, and Meta’s AI ambitions

Dina Powell McCormick ranks among the most accomplished figures of Egyptian heritage to have ascended the corridors of influence in the US. Over the…

Marco Mossad

Documents & Memoirs

How the US got the SDF to capitulate to Damascus

10 Feb 2026

Al Majalla publishes a full account of what transpired during negotiations, the draft integration framework, and proposed constitutional amendments

Ibrahim Hamidi

READ FULL ARTICLE

Sara Gironi Carnevale

Documents & Memoirs

Could Trump actually buy Greenland?

30 January 2026

If history is any indication, then yes. While much of modern-day America was acquired through conquest, large chunks of the country were also bought from reluctant sellers under pressure.

Steve Hewitt

A composite image of Rifaat al-Assad and the new Syrian flag, with a destroyed statue of his brother Hafez al-Assad and a broken image of Bashar al-Assad after the fall of the regime on 8 December 2024.

AFP / Al Majalla

Documents & Memoirs

Rifaat Assad's death in exile is justice denied

25 January 2026

Bashar's uncle was a key figure in the Assad regime who oversaw the bloodiest massacre committed by an Arab state against its own people in history, earning him the title 'the Butcher of Hama'

Ibrahim Hamidi

culture & social affairs

The Arabic historical novel: between justification and inquiry

02 March 2026

It grasps the logic of an earlier age from within, reveals how power works through language and conduct, and shows how justification enters common speech and obedience settles into habit

Bahaa Iy'ali

Culture & Social Affairs

Ruchir Joshi on the long shadow of history

Indian author Ruchir Joshi discusses his 920-page reimagining of 1940s Calcutta, its mosaic structure, and the enduring roots of violence and division that continue to shape the present

Nesrein El-Bakhshawangy

Al Majalla

Culture & Social Affairs

Franco-African literature is breaking out of its box

For years, a wealth of literary talent from a vast stretch of Africa has been pigeonholed into a marginalised sub-category, but change is afoot

Bahaa Iy'ali

Details of one of the main buildings in the Alhambra Palace in Granada, on 11 March 1999.

PATRICK KOVARIK / AFP

The untapped potential of Arab cultural centres

States have long recognised the importance of cultural…

Abdul Rahman Mazhar Halloush

Interview With Ali Omar - Minister for Foreign Affairs of Somalia

Science & Technology

Renewables on track to redefine global energy

Natural resources like solar, wind, and water are set to provide 36% of global electricity production this year. Even for sceptics like Donald Trump, the trends are unmistakable.

Mohammed Mansour

From development to doctrine: the Pentagon fast-tracks AI

Donald Trump's administration has ordered military chiefs to incorporate Artificial Intelligence into almost everything that it does, and to do it quickly.

Marco Mossad

Eduardo Ramon

Global water bankruptcy and what can be done about it

An eye-opening UN report revealing the extent of the problem posed by rapidly diminishing freshwater reserves is a sobering read

Mohammed Mansour

The Blue Nile River after the filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam reservoir near the Ethiopian-Sudanese border, on 6 November 2020.

Reuters

Is Starlink the key to undercutting Iran's regime?

Elon Musk's satellite internet connectivity service— designed to bypass state-controlled networks—could form the nucleus of an alternative communications infrastructure in Iran

Marco Mossad

SCOTT OLSON / AFP

Business & Economy

US-Iran war: economic costs already start to stack up

Al Majalla lays out three possible scenarios for how the conflict unfolds, along with their associated costs

Mohamed Sharki

After US tariffs ruling comes the billion-dollar reckoning

The Supreme Court has stripped Trump's 'emergency' tariffs of their legal basis, triggering a scramble to recover fiscal losses

Abdel-Rahman Ayas

The US Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., where it issued its ruling, presided over by John Roberts, overturning the sweeping tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on 20 February 2026.

Reuters

Gulf economies are leaning less on oil

A drop in the price of crude these days is nowhere near as painful as it used to be, because most of the Gulf Cooperation Council states have diversified away from hydrocarbons

Abdulfattah Khattab

Eduardo Ramon

Gulf sovereign debt: different approaches and results

Many of the big regional energy producers retain strong credit ratings as they boost their borrowing. How the money is spent will determine the wisdom of each approach.

Amer Ziab Al-Tamimi

Eduardo Ramon

English Edition Soon

24 Feb 2026

In this aerial handout picture released by the Iranian Press Centre, mourners dig graves during the funeral for over 100 children killed in a reported strike on a primary school in Iran’s Hormozgan province in Minab on 3 March 2026.

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