From seducing nuclear whistleblowers in London to orchestrating assassinations in the heart of Beirut, female Mossad agents stand out in the landscape of modern espionage

Nureddin al-Atassi was the first and last Syrian president to address the UN General Assembly in 1967. But President Ahmed al-Sharaa will break this trend when he is in New York next week.

Classified documents from the 1970s obtained by Al Majalla show what led to the killing of the Lebanese Druze politician and how Syria came to occupy Lebanon

The Druze leader, whose forces were winning Lebanon's civil war, disagreed with Syria's president over it. Now, Al Majalla publishes a letter he sent to Assad, aiming to put them on the same page.

First divided into mini-states, France later merged them into a federal union in 1922, which was a spectacular failure. In 1925, it was replaced by the Syrian state with Damascus as the capital.

Al Majalla publishes the US president's plan for a phased hostage/prisoner release over 60 days during a temporary end to the bombing that gives both sides time to negotiate a permanent agreement.

The notion of the US as an honest broker was always a dubious one, particularly given its largely unquestioning support for Israel, but its recent actions towards Iran shatter the concept completely

Peace with Israel had crossed the Egyptian president's mind as early as 1952, when he engaged in secret negotiations with Israel, which ultimately failed

It has been over a century and a half since a church has been so overtly attacked in the country. Al Majalla takes a look at the history.

In light of forthcoming Syria-Israel peace talks expected to resume soon after they were suspended in 2008, Al Majalla takes a look at the history of negotiations between the two sides