While financial obligations outlive regimes, Damascus may be able to show that some of the $7.6bn in loans from Tehran was spent repressing the Syrian people—and that Iran knew about it
Key regional powers—Türkiye, Egypt, Iran—do not see eye to eye over what transpired in Syria. One emerges as a winner, the other a loser, and Syria's new Islamist-leaning leaders unsettle the third.
Trump is unlikely to join an Israeli foray into Iraq, but he may decide to withhold the $250mn annual military assistance to Baghdad as a way to pressure the government to rein in its militias
Sources of cash are drying up as front companies and drug production lines are dismantled and supply networks and smuggling routes are compromised. Iran is also questioning its funding of the group.
Assad's fall means Iran loses its contiguous land corridor. Without it, 'Axis of Resistance' forces will find it difficult to work together. Meanwhile, Iran's ally, Russia, looks to be on its way out.
Both Tehran and Washington have powerful incentives to resolve the conflict through negotiations, but actors on all sides have reasons to derail these efforts
From machines that develop human emotions to societies governed by artificial intelligence, Arab novelists explore the promises and perils of a radically transformed future