Al Majalla’s cover story last week looked at the ongoing Lebanon-Israel negotiations and the prospects for reaching an agreement. For his part, Michael Horowitz identifies key obstacles. “While historic, talks are incomplete and structurally fragile. The central paradox is this: the Lebanese government is at the table. Hezbollah is not,” he says. Meanwhile, David Schenker says, “Given concerns about Hezbollah backlash, Beirut will likely want to proceed incrementally toward its stated goal of establishing a state monopoly on weapons.”  And Elie Kossaifi examines the parallels between the current talks and those of 1983, while Subhi Franjieh asks, "Are Damascus and Hezbollah headed for confrontation?" Read his article to find out.

And writing from Damascus, Ibrahim Hamidi describes the Syrian capital as “reassured, yet wary” as the country navigates a host of challenges, chief among them economic anxieties, while trying to stay out of the current regional spillover from the US war on Iran. For his part, Christopher Phillips pens a piece titled Trump has lost the Iran war, but how badly? In it, he says, “While all the effects of this conflict may take time to fully realise, short and medium-term signs expose the limits of US power and see America's rivals benefiting.”  And Nicholas Grossman explains how the US has ditched professional diplomacy, asserting that “Repeated lies by the Trump administration have eroded US credibility. Tehran doesn't trust Washington to follow through on war-ending promises.”

For his part, Con Coughlin looks at the US-Iran standoff in the Hormuz and asks, “Who will blink first?” “While much is at stake for both sides in this seemingly intractable dispute, neither Trump nor Iran appears to be backing down from their entrenched positions,” he says. And in Economy, Charbel Barakat explains how The Iran war is reshaping the China-Gulf economic model. “Closing the Strait of Hormuz has shown how the Gulf should shift from an oil-export model to a digital and distribution hub,” he says. Will this trigger the long-delayed free trade agreement with China? Read his article to find out. And Ravi Agrawal explains how The world is paying the price for America’s war. “Conflict with Iran hurts American wallets, but it’s far more devastating for people in the global south,” he says.

And in writing for Science and Technology, Marco Mossad looks at the robots replacing Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield, explaining how the war in Ukraine is becoming an open laboratory for testing advanced military technologies that may yet redefine the very meaning of combat.

And finally, in Culture, Shadi Alaa Aldin pens a piece titled Israel's casual expression of its violent occupation. In it, he says, “Photos of Israeli soldiers cooking, celebrating, and looting inside homes in Gaza and southern Lebanon reveal how the occupied home is treated as a natural right.” And Fadi Abdallah reviews a new book that tackles the fading art of Egyptian Koranic recitation. The author, Haytham Abu Zayd, explains how the art form grew, excelled, and then declined over the years and concludes by offering a path to revival.