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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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Eduardo Ramon
Business & Economy

US-China summit: this time, Xi sets the agenda

13 May 2026

Washington and Beijing have much to discuss during Donald Trump's visit. As they meet, both presidents will find that they are playing with different hands.

Shirley Ze Yu
Eduardo Ramon
Business & Economy

What the new US Fed chair could do differently

13 May 2026

Jerome Powell's successor, Kevin Warsh, takes the reins at a critical fiscal moment, as inflationary pressures caused by the US war on Iran begin to take effect worldwide.

Toufic Chanbour
Al Majalla
Politics

Is it the end of the two-party system in the UK?

13 May 2026

Britons seem fed up with establishment parties after Labour's disastrous performance in this week's local elections, and the Tories' similar failure two years ago

Con Coughlin
Festival General Delegate Thierry Fremaux speaks in front of the Cannes Festival official poster from the movie "Thelma & Louise" during a press conference in Cannes, France, on 11 May 2026. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
Culture & Social Affairs

Cinema's changing face on display at Cannes

11 May 2026

This year, the renowned film festival appears to be addressing a world where films are made and consumed differently, while maintaining its legacy as the world's foremost arena for art cinema

Firas Al-Madi
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the day of the EU Leaders and Regional Partners Summit in Nicosia, Cyprus, on 24 April 2026.
 Reuters
Politics

Are Lebanon-Israel talks a mistake? The view from Cairo

11 May 2026

Egyptian officials believe US-Israeli pressure to rapidly disarm Hezbollah could backfire and plunge Lebanon into a new civil war

Amr Emam

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