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  • SDF
The "Unity of Position" conference, held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Hasakah on August 8, 2025. Social media

Heading for a showdown? SDF conference riles Damascus

Syria's government needs to centralise decision-making and bring armed groups to heel, but Kurds in the north-east want to establish a 'coalition of the unwilling' with Druze and Alawites. What now?

Subhi Franjieh 13 August 2025
The largest Syrian flag was raised on the highest pole, 110 meters high, in Tishreen Park in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on June 4. Getty

Taif offers clues on the right governing formula for a new Syria

Questions of autonomy, integration, participation, and administration are key to resolving Syria's many disputes among its many groups. Could a 1989 agreement for Lebanon show the way?

Sihanouk Dibo 13 August 2025
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. Reuters

Fading hopes that the SDF will agree to Syrian integration

The autonomous Kurdish-led group in Syria's north-east has been protected by the US for a decade, but the move now is towards integration with Damascus. Unfortunately, the SDF has not got the memo.

Charles Lister 11 July 2025
SDF leader Mazloum Abdi (C) and Hamid Darbandi (C-R behind), envoy of Iraqi Kurdish politician Masoud Barzani, attend the pan-Kurdish "Unity and Consensus" conference in Qamishli in northeastern Syria on April 26, 2025. Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP

In U-turn, Syrian Kurds are now demanding federalism

Having agreed on an outline for integration with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa last month, Kurdish-led groups have now issued a raft of contradictory demands, angering both Damascus and Ankara

Omer Onhon 30 April 2025
The US-led Operation Inherent Resolve coalition against the Islamic State (IS) trains SDF fighters in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province on September 7, 2022. Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP

Where does the counter-IS mission stand after Sharaa-SDF deal?

An SDF shift away from the US partnership and the risk of IS resurgence could undo years of hard-won progress in the fight against terrorism

Caroline Rose 21 April 2025
Ahmed al-Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi during the signing of the agreement to integrate the SDF into state institutions, Damascus, March 10, 2025. AFP

Reading between the lines of the Sharaa-Abdi deal

Al Majalla's exclusive interview with YPG commander Mazloum Abdi gives great insight into a landmark deal reached between Damascus and Syria's Kurds. This is my take on what Abdi really meant.

Omer Onhon 14 March 2025
Ahmed al-Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi during the signing of the agreement to integrate the SDF into state institutions, Damascus, March 10, 2025. AFP

Sharaa's political pragmatism and the myth of sectarianism

After a hugely important deal to integrate Syria's Kurds, there is a growing realisation among myriad factions that national unity is crucial for the country's survival

Ahmed Maher 13 March 2025
Yusra Na'im

Mazloum Abdi agrees to merge the SDF into Syria's state army

Al Majalla interviewed the SDF commander who shared his thinking prior to the landmark decision, which also guarantees constitutional rights for Syrian Kurds

Ibrahim Hamidi 11 March 2025
A man walks close to a fire raging at a facility in al-Qahtaniyah in northeastern Syria close to the Turkish border on October 5, 2023.

SDF-HTS standoff: Best and worst-case scenarios

While solving the SDF situation in itself will not guarantee success for the larger Syria project, failing to integrate them will almost certainly torpedo that project

James Jeffrey 31 January 2025

SDF on shaky ground in new Syria

Fares Garabet 23 December 2024
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US President Donald Trump meets Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate for an end to the war in Ukraine in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Politics

Putin rides high after Alaska

18 August 2025

Seven instances that showed the Russian leader had the upper hand during his meeting with Trump

Robert Ford
Eduardo Ramon
Business & Economy

The rare earths powering industries and fuelling conflicts

18 August 2025

From Africa to the Arctic, certain metals and minerals are so highly sought after for today's strategic industries that countries will go to war over them. What are they? Al Majalla digs deeper.

Abdulfattah Khattab
US Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack, also special envoy to Syria, fields questions from journalists after meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, on August 18, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Politics

 Lebanon at a crossroads over Hezbollah arms

18 August 2025

US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack used his latest visit to Beirut to deliver what was, in effect, an ultimatum to the Lebanese government, though he took care not to present it as such

Michael Harari
Aliaa Aboukhaddour
Culture & Social Affairs

How Gaza’s hakawati use storytelling to cling to memory and life

17 August 2025

Storytelling in a genocide in which there has been no formal education for two years is no luxury. Rather, it is an attempt to revive the imaginations of a generation robbed of their childhood.

Houssam Marouf
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer makes an address following an emergency cabinet meeting on Gaza at 10 Downing Street in London on July 29, 2025. Toby Melville / AFP
Politics

Performative politics: Palestine recognition pledges ring hollow

18 August 2025

The moves by France, the UK and other Western states appear to be more about appeasing domestic critics with symbolic gestures rather than a genuine attempt to change Israel's behaviour

Christopher Phillips

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OPINIONS

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Rishi Iyengar

US economy at risk of stagflation

Al Majalla - London

Alaska 2025 and Munich 1938: parallels and differences

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Ibrahim Hamidi

Sonallah Ibrahim: the maverick novelist who never betrayed his convictions

Khalil Sweileh
Khalil Sweileh
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