The UAE backs southern Yemenis who want secession, while Saudi Arabia wants a unified Yemen. Egypt also favours unity, but is close to both Gulf states, putting it in a difficult position.
Since Trump began lifting sanctions in May, no time has been wasted. US investment delegations have been flocking to Damascus, and security cooperation has already started.
The US president hasn't invested enough political capital in the painstaking details of peacemaking. Instead, he has focused on short-term truces he can boast about in his quest for a Nobel prize.
On Monday, the Syrian president shook hands with Trump at the White House. Speaking to Al Majalla, a former State Department official explains why this is a moment she could have never imagined.
In what could be a historic turning point in US-Syria relations, the new government in Damascus will likely join the international coalition against the Islamic State (IS)
Created by then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the Rapid Support Forces have ripped the country in two. This is what happens when a state gives up its monopoly on the legitimate use of force.
Having lost most of its weaponry, fighters, and supply lines, the group can no longer respond as it once did. It no longer cites the right to resist, nor does it seek to impose a deterrent.
Those who are able to bury their dead are among the lucky. For others, not knowing the fate of their missing loved ones or receiving mutilated corpses impossible to identify adds insult to injury.
Khamenei has struck a defiant tone amid growing protests against his regime, but a series of regional setbacks, coupled with an emboldened Trump, could finally bring it down
Overcoming Yemen's fragmentation requires more support for the Riyadh-led path—one that rejects secession, all militias and institutionalises the state
If fighting spreads beyond the predominantly Kurdish neighbourhoods of Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud and beyond Aleppo, there is a real risk that Syria could be dragged into a new civil war
Recently declassified meeting minutes between the two leaders show how Washington was well aware of Moscow's grievances over NATO expansion, but went ahead anyway