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  • Syria

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
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
Members of Syria's security forces stand guard during the funeral of three people killed in Israeli strikes a day earlier, in the southern town of Daraa on March 18, 2025. Bakr ALKASEM / AFP

The 8th Brigade agrees to dissolve in boost for Damascus

A high-profile armed group in Daraa in southern Syria has reluctantly agreed to hand over its weapons, with its fighters joining a national army under the Ministry of Defence. In the end, it had to.

Abbas Sharifa 17 April 2025
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meeting with Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) during the 4th edition of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF2025) in Antalya on April 11, 2025. AFP

Syria’s neighbours want it to have security, but on their terms

In Türkiye for talks and a conference, Syria's new president knows that there is much to do and many to satisfy if he is to rebuild his country. Amidst the smiles, those with agendas jostle.

Omer Onhon 16 April 2025
Syrian-Palestinian painter Hani Abbas AFP

The cartoonists who satirised Assad's oppressive regime

A simple satirical image can cut through in a way that words cannot, so those brave enough to lampoon Syria's brutal Assad regime played a crucial role in its downfall.

Nawwar Jabbour 14 April 2025
This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's new Minister of Social Affairs and Labour Minister Hind Kabawat during an official ceremony in Damascus on March 29, 2025. AFP

Rejection and red flags: Syria's new government off to shaky start

To be successful, Syria needs genuine representation to make all citizens feel included—not token appointees to check the "diversity" box

Haid Haid 07 April 2025
Syrian General Husni al-Zaim came to power in a coup d'etat against President Shukri al-Quwatli on 30 March 1948, establishing the first military regime in the Arab world. AFP

Al-Zaim's 1949 offer to absorb 300,000 Palestinians into Syria

On 5 April 1949, the first round of direct Syria-Israel talks were held just weeks after Husni al-Za'im's successful military coup that unseated Syrian President Shukri al-Quwatli

Sami Moubayed 05 April 2025
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Eduardo Ramon
Politics

Trump has lost the Iran war, but how badly?

20 April 2026

While all the effects of this conflict may take time to fully realise, short and medium-term signs expose the limits of US power and see America's rivals benefiting

Christopher Phillips
Jason Lyon
Business & Economy

The Iran war is reshaping the China-Gulf economic model

21 April 2026

Closing the Strait of Hormuz has shown how the Gulf should shift from an oil-export model to a digital and distribution hub. Will this trigger the long-delayed free trade agreement with China?

Charbel Barakat
Pete Reynolds
Politics

Lebanon and Israel: negotiations and the end of Hezbollah

23 April 2026

Building on the ten-day ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump, time will tell if these talks are a one-off or the beginning of a different path for Lebanon.

Al Majalla - London
Grace Russell
Science & Technology

Saving the soldiers: robots as Ukraine’s new weapon

22 April 2026

The war in Ukraine is becoming an open laboratory for testing advanced military technologies that may yet redefine the very meaning of combat

Marco Mossad
Nesma Moharam
Culture & Social Affairs

New book tackles the fading art of Koranic recitation

20 April 2026

Egyptian heritage researcher Haytham Abu Zayd sheds light on how the art form grew, excelled, and then declined over the years and ends by offering a path to revival

Fadi El-Abdallah

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