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  • SDF

AFP_Al Majalla

Forging Syrian national unity is key to regional peace

Damascus has already taken steps towards this end, but international support will still be vital. It can also draw on relevant elements from Iraq's governing model.

James Jeffrey 22 October 2025
Al Majalla

Ilham Ahmed on negotiating Syria’s future

In a wide-ranging sitdown interview with Al Majalla, AANES Foreign Affairs Chief Ilham Ahmed lays out the lingering points of contention with Damascus and the way forward

Ibrahim Hamidi 03 October 2025
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
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Lina Jaradat
Politics

Trump, Sharaa, and the future of Syria

05 December 2025

There was visible warmth when the US and Syrian presidents met in the Oval Office last month, with some even speculating a Trump visit to Damascus. But there is much to do before that happens.

Robert Ford
AFP / Al Majalla
Politics

The GCC moves from ‘safe neutrality’ to ‘indivisible security’

05 December 2025

Following the unprecedented attacks on Qatar, Gulf leaders have pledged to forge a unified defence front, marking a historic shift from cautious neutrality to collective security

Omar Harkous
Jay Torres
Politics

The evolution of Latin America’s drug cartels

04 December 2025

What began as a locally rooted trade in coca leaves and opium evolved into a transnational system of cartels that challenged governments, corrupted institutions, and destabilised countries

Stefanie Butendieck Hijerra
AFP / Al Majalla
Politics

Why the US is asking Lebanon for its bomb back

05 December 2025

When Israel killed a Hezbollah military chief in late November, one GBU-39 bomb failed to detonate, leaving Washington worried that its adversaries could reverse engineer it

Michael Horowitz
Spanish poet Miriam Reyes Wikimedia Commons
Culture & Social Affairs

Spanish poet Miriam Reyes on escaping the prison of the page

03 December 2025

With her collection 'Con' having won Spain's 2025 National Poetry Prize, the Galician writer spoke to Al Majalla about the process of creation as she works on her first novel.

Mohammed Al-Bittari

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OPINIONS

Gaza patients stranded amid crippling medical crisis

Al Majalla - London
Al Majalla - London

‘She’s a spy’: Soleimani’s warning about Syrian advisor Luna al-Shibl

Manaf Saad

A century of interventions: the US is misreading Latin America

Stefanie Butendieck Hijerra
Stefanie Butendieck Hijerra

Egypt’s drug price increases help companies but not patients

Marcelle Nasr
Marcelle Nasr
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