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  • Politics
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  • Syria

People celebrate in Damascus' Omeyyad square after US President Donald Trump's decision to lift sanctions in Syria, on May 13, 2025. Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP

Syria's long road to economic recovery can finally begin

Trump has lifted US sanctions, offering Syria a "chance at greatness". Despite lingering hurdles, for the first time in a long time, there is an electric sense of hope in the country.

Joseph Daher 15 May 2025
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) watching as US President Donald Trump (C) shakes hands with Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Riyadh on May 14, 2025. Bandar AL-JALOUD / Saudi Royal Palace

Trump's lifting of Syria sanctions solidifies Iran's regional defeat

It could very well boost Israel's security as well as that of everyone else in the region

James Jeffrey 14 May 2025
American President Richard Nixon made an official visit to Damascus on June 15, 1974, and was welcomed by Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. Getty

From Nixon to Clinton: Syrian-American summits since 1945

Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, will meet Donald Trump in Riyadh today, making him the first Syrian leader to meet with a US president since Clinton's meeting with Hafez al-Assad in 2000

Sami Moubayed 14 May 2025
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
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In this image, taken from a video provided by the Russian Defence Ministry Press Service on 21 May 2026, a Russian navy seaman takes part in drills of Russia's nuclear forces. Russian Defence Ministry Press Service/AP
Politics

Russia’s timely reminder of its vast nuclear arsenal

03 June 2026

Military exercises in Belarus at an unusual time of year seem designed in part to make Moscow's adversaries think twice

Khattar Abu Diab
Opinion

Has Trump's patience with Netanyahu run out?

04 June 2026

The Israeli leader's intransigence is proving deeply problematic for the White House, so much so that Trump swore at him on a recent phone call

Con Coughlin
Units of Moqtada Sadr's militia parade with his photo down a main street of the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City June 21, 2014, in Eastern Baghdad. Washington Post
Politics

Sadr once again dismantles his armed militia. Why now?

03 June 2026

The decision to dismantle the Peace Brigades may herald a new stage in the Iraqi state's trajectory, or it could just be a shrewd recalibration to disorient friend and foe alike

Khairuldeen Al Makhzoomi
Adrián Astorgano
Business & Economy

Why people flock to the dollar when local currencies collapse

05 June 2026

An estimated 60% of all US banknotes in circulation are held outside the United States. In many parts of the world, the dollar is effectively the unofficial local currency. Al Majalla explains why.

Abdel-Rahman Ayas
A Royal Caribbean cruise sails into the Havana harbour on 6 May 2019, after the activation of Chapter III of the Helms-Burton Act, which sought to intensify the US blockade against Cuba. YAMIL LAGE / AFP
Politics

Cuba, lawfare, and Trump’s Venezuela temptation

02 June 2026

A new American legal ruling turns the screw on the Caribbean island nation by increasing the risks companies face by continuing to make money there. This is all part of the plan.

Stefanie Butendieck Hijerra

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OPINIONS

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Ibrahim Hamidi
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