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  • Politics
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  • Syria

Assad flees Syria after lightening opposition offensive

Fares Garabet 09 December 2024
A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is pictured with its frame broken in a Syrian regime's Political Security Branch facility on the outskirts of the central city of Hama following its capture. OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP

Assad's fall: The end of an era

In just over a week, a lightning rebel offensive has collapsed five decades of draconian Assad rule. Al Majalla looks back at the political career of the former Syrian president.

Sami Moubayed 08 December 2024
A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is pictured with its frame broken in a Syrian regime's Political Security Branch facility on the outskirts of the central city of Hama following its capture. OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP

Why did Assad fall so easily?

After over two decades of rule, following three decades of his father Hafez al-Assad's rule, Bashar has fled following a lightning rebel offensive that swept the country

Omer Onhon 07 December 2024
A protester holds a poster with an image of South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol during a candlelight rally calling for the ouster of the president in Gwanghwamun in Seoul on December 5, 2024. ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP

Are democracies doomed to gridlock and dysfunction?

From France to South Korea, US democratic allies are descending into political chaos

Emma Ashford and Matthew Kroenig 07 December 2024
Fighters drive past an "I Love Hama" sign, which has been repainted in the colours of Syria's opposition flag, in Hama, after anti-government fighters captured the city, on December 6, 2024. Bakr AL KASSEM / AFP

Hama's fall turns another page on its long and bloody history

One of Syria's four largest cities, Hama's history pre-dates Christianity. However, it is most famously known for a bloody assault carried out by Hafez al-Assad in 1982, which killed thousands.

Manaf Saad 06 December 2024
Islamist-led rebels pose for a picture with a Syria army helicopter on the tarmac at the Nayrab military airport in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on December 2, 2024, after a surprise lightning offensive on November 30. AAREF WATAD / AFP

Why Assad’s regime is collapsing so quickly

After taking Aleppo and Hama, armed Syrian opposition factions are making their way further south as the regime increasingly appears to be hollowing out

Charles Lister 05 December 2024
An opposition fighter fires a rocket against Syrian government forces, in the northern outskirts of Syria's west-central city of Hama on December 4, 2024

A weak Assad benefits Turkey—and is a headache for Trump

After years of relative quiet, renewed fighting in Syria could be the new US administration's first major foreign policy challenge

Jeremy Hodge and Hussein Nasser 05 December 2024

Netanyahu's revolving wars

Fares Garabet 05 December 2024
A militant poses for a picture after anti-government fighters seized Syrian army military equipment on 3 December 2024. Omar Haj Kadour / AFP

Syria’s fresh crisis is an opportunity for the Arab world to step up

The signs are bad but there is international agreement when it comes to Syria. If they act now, Arab states can still re-establish control over events, but the usual statements of support won't cut it

Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy 03 December 2024
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadist fighters fire towards Syrian Army troops in the Rashidin district on the outskirts of Aleppo on 29 November 2024. Bakr Alkasem/AFP

Why a new ceasefire in Syria is likely before long

The opposition fighters making such strides on the battlefield want to carry on all the way to Damascus. For everyone else, there are reasons to call a halt to proceedings sooner rather than later

Robert Ford 02 December 2024
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Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani (C) reviews a military honour guard with Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) during a welcoming ceremony in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on January 31, 2019. GREG BAKER / AFP
Politics

Pivot to China? Gulf states mull options after Doha strike

12 September 2025

Israel's attack in Qatar erodes Gulf states' trust in the US and serves as a stark reminder that they cannot depend on American security guarantees

Xiaotong Yang
A Hezbollah flag is placed in front of the shrine of Shamoun al-Safa, built within a castle in the village of Shamaa in southern Lebanon's Tyre governorate, on January 31, 2025, that was heavily damaged by Israeli bombing. Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP
Business & Economy

Trump Economic Zone plan raises eyebrows in Lebanon

11 September 2025

Many Lebanese see the project as a demographic one with economic dressings aimed at expelling the country's southern population from their lands

Souraya Chahine
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa Al Majalla
Politics

From Idlib to New York: Sharaa’s winding road the UN

12 September 2025

From the plains of Idlib to the presidential palace in Damascus and now the UN headquarters in Manhattan, Al Majalla traces the Syrian president's journey to get to this historic moment

Ibrahim Hamidi
Opinion

'The Voice of Hind Rajab' shows cries for justice are only getting louder

07 September 2025

A 24-minute standing ovation at the film premiere was more than a symbolic gesture of justice for Israel's murder of little Hind, but a heartfelt cry of real anguish over the ongoing genocide in Gaza

Samer Abou Hawwach
Egyptian writer May Telmissany poses during a portrait session held on April 15, 2014, in Paris, France. Ulf Andersen/Getty
Culture & Social Affairs

May Telmissany: writing is an act of resistance against the ugliness of the world

14 September 2025

The acclaimed Egyptian writer talks love, betrayal, autobiography, and the lack of Arab literary identity

El-Sayed Hussein

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OPINIONS

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