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النسخة العربية
  • Politics
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  • Syria

Lina Jaradat

Ahmed al-Sharaa: the Syrian president with much to prove

Al-Sharaa met Trump today in Riyadh, after the US president lifted sanctions on Syria on Tuesday, offering it "a chance at greatness". But who is the Syrian leader thrust into the global spotlight?

Bilal Saab 14 May 2025

Sham Cash: The problem with Syria’s new digital salary app

Without reforms, Sham Cash could become just another tool to consolidate economic and political control into the hands of a select few

Haid Haid 12 May 2025
Brig. Gen. Mohammed al-Jassim and some of his officers in Sheikh al-Hadid in the Afrin district of northern Syria. April 13, 2025. Shelly Kittleson

Much-maligned Syrian commander rebuts massacre claims

Al Majalla travelled to Afrin to speak to a Syrian commander accused of human rights abuses and confiscating property, to hear his side of the story

Shelly Kittleson 10 May 2025
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (C) attends a flag raising ceremony of the new Syrian flag at United Nations Headquarters in New York on April 25, 2025. ANGELA WEISS / AFP

Why the US should engage with Syria's new government

The new leadership in Damascus has carefully considered the list of American demands required of it to lift sanctions and has taken adequate steps to address them

Radwan Ziadeh 08 May 2025
Bashar al-Assad sits with Farouk al-Sharaa during a meeting at the Parliament in Damascus with Arab parliamentarians, on November 9, 2008. AFP

Farouk Sharaa on the depths of Assad's narcissism

In the second volume of his memoirs, the former Syrian vice president describes the reign of Bashar al-Assad from his first years in power up until the outbreak of the Syrian revolution

Sami Moubayed 05 May 2025
A boy checks a destroyed vehicle in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya near Damascus on May 1, 2025. OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP

Syria's sectarian violence is a ticking time bomb

The latest violence against Druze is yet another example of the danger of failing to address sectarian fissures, leaving Syria's fragile transitional process dangerously exposed

Haid Haid 03 May 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
A security officer loyal to the interim Syrian government guards a checkpoint previously held by supporters of deposed president, Bashar al-Assad, in the town of Hmeimim, in the coastal province of Latakia, on March 11, 2025. OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP

Security along the Syrian coast is a work-in-progress

Weapons caches, investigations into killings, ongoing raids and kidnappings, coordinated assaults, roadblocks, and sporadic fighting does not instil confidence, but some residents see reason to hope.

Subhi Franjieh 28 April 2025
Syrian soldiers wave as they leave Lebanon 26 April 2005 in Masnaa. Lebanese danced with joy as the last Syrian troops crossed the border back home, ending their 29-year presence in Lebanon. JOSEPH BARRAK / AFP

This day in history: Syria ends its 29-year military occupation of Lebanon

On 26 April 2005, Syria was forced to pull its troops from a country that US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had tacitly invited in a year after the civil war erupted in 1975

Sami Moubayed 26 April 2025
Al Majalla

Washington tells Damascus what it needs to do to ease sanctions

Demands include a public ban on any Palestinian political activity, proscribing Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation, and allowing unilateral US military action in Syria

Ibrahim Hamidi 22 April 2025
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AFP-Reuters-Al Majalla
Politics

Locked and loaded: what is Trump's endgame in Iran?

29 January 2026

Whether American military action triggers a rapid collapse of Iran's regime or gradually erodes it over time, all paths lead to one destination: the end of the Islamic Republic

Futoshi Matsumoto
Palestinian children peek out of holes in their tent at a makeshift displacement camp set up amid building rubble in Gaza City on 12 May 2025. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP
Culture & Social Affairs

'Life' in a tent pushes the bounds of Gazan endurance

26 January 2026

Those who somehow managed to survive starvation, bombs and disease now face a punishing winter in 'shelters' as battered as Palestinian existence itself

Hala Al-Naji
Al Majalla
Politics

Unifying Syria without reigniting war

30 January 2026

Following the signing of a comprehensive integration agreement, stabilising the region hinges on whether the country can be unified without repression

James Jeffrey
Sara Gironi Carnevale
Documents & Memoirs

Could Trump actually buy Greenland?

30 January 2026

If history is any indication, then yes. While much of modern-day America was acquired through conquest, large chunks of the country were also bought from reluctant sellers under pressure.

Steve Hewitt
Lebanese pop star Haifa Wehbe performs during the Batroun International Festival in the coastal city of Batroun, north of Beirut. ANWAR AMRO / AFP
Culture & Social Affairs

Lebanon finds an anthem out of the reach of drones

26 January 2026

The economy is a mess and the politics are askew but the Lebanese are once again learning how to celebrate, these days to the tune of Badna Nrou, meaning 'We need to calm down'

Samer Abou Hawwach

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