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  • Syria

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attending the Arab summit in Riyadh, having been brought back in 'from the cold' by Arab leaders Reuters

Assad turns escalation in Gaza and Lebanon to his advantage

The Syrian president knows that war between Israel and Hezbollah will send diplomats hurriedly calling Damascus. After more than a decade in the diplomatic naughty corner, this is his moment

Haid Haid 19 August 2024
A US Apache attack helicopter patrols above an oil production facility near al-Malikiyah (Derik) in Syria's north-eastern
Hasakah province on October 27, 2020. Delil Souleiman/AFP

Syria’s oil industry was once booming. Could it be again?

War sent oil firms running while the loss of territorial control in the oil- and gas-rich north-east left the Kurds with the hydrocarbons and Damascus reliant on Iran. Will the good times roll again?

Manaf Saad 17 August 2024
A picture taken during a tour origanized by the Jordanian Army shows a drone flying over an observation post along the border with Syria, on February 17, 2022. Khalil Mazraawi/AFP

Drug drones: how Syria is dropping narcotics and weapons into Jordan

The interception of more than a dozen unmanned aerial vehicles in recent months has shown that smuggling has a highly effective new toy, while the Jordanians have a new security headache

Haid Haid 08 August 2024

A false 24-year claim about farmland killed 12 young footballers

A fascinating first-hand account from a former ambassador of the conversation about the Shebaa Farms that uncovered the lie that Hezbollah uses to justify its continued 'resistance' against Israel

Frederic C. Hof 03 August 2024
Photo of the letter from the foreign ministers of seven European countries to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell AL MAJALLA

EXCLUSIVE: European push to end long isolation of Syria’s regime

The European "three no's" have remained the cornerstone of the European policy for many years

Ibrahim Hamidi 27 July 2024
Demonstrators in the Syrian city of Sweida protest the deteriorating economic conditions on September 5, 2023. There was a city-wide boycott of the election. Reuters

Behind the façade: understanding Syria’s parliamentary election

This bureaucratic sham is meant to make the Assad regime look credible but instead just demonstrates its sclerosis. Little wonder most Syrians don't bother.

Haid Haid 24 July 2024
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) in 2023. Russia has been mediating between Turkey and Syria. Mikhail Klimentyev/Reuters

First signs of a thaw? Russia nudges Erdoğan and Assad closer

The Turkish and Syrian presidents have not cared for one another in recent years. With Turkish soldiers on Syrian land, one has the upper hand. If pre-conditions can be ditched, will the leaders meet?

Omer Onhon 16 July 2024
A painting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez al-Assad, at an art gallery in Damascus, July 3, 2017. AFP

From socialism to drug hub: The evolution of Syria's economy

The Syrian Army's Fourth Division partners with an unlikely cast of characters to smuggle pills across borders while security men in Damascus raid currency exchanges. How did it come to this?

Mohamed abi Samra 03 July 2024
IS jihadists are currently active in at least 28 countries across the African continent. Lina Jaradat

Ten years after its inception, IS finds new sanctuary in Africa

Ten years ago, al-Baghdadi declared an Islamic Caliphate in Iraq and Syria. But after being largely defeated in the Middle East, the terrorist group has found new places to regroup around the world.

Charles Lister 29 June 2024
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on June 26, 2024, shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (R) meeting with the Russian President's special envoy to Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, in Damascus. SANA/AFP

Softened stances help grease the path to Turkey-Syria normalisation

Turkish and Syrian security officials are rumoured to have recently met at Latakia's Hmeimim air base under Russian auspices, where some cooperation agreements were reached

Omer Onhon 28 June 2024
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03 November 2025

Al Majalla examines key developments in the US and across the globe less than a year into Trump's second presidential term

Al Majalla - London
AFP-Reuters-Eduardo Ramon
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Zohran Mamdani becomes first Muslim mayor of New York

04 November 2025

The 34-year-old socialist's win is a seismic development, proving that tax rises for the rich to fund social programmes, and unwavering advocacy for Palestinian rights, are politically viable stances

Tarek Rashed
Details of the remains of Palestinians released by Israel are shown on a screen in order to help family members to identify their relatives, at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on 18 October 2025. OMAR AL-QATTAA / AFP
Politics

Closure denied: the agonising search for Gaza's vanished

05 November 2025

Those who are able to bury their dead are among the lucky. For others, not knowing the fate of their missing loved ones or receiving mutilated corpses impossible to identify adds insult to injury.

Salem Al Rayyes
Syrian novelist Khalil al-Neimi Supplied
Culture & Social Affairs

Khalil al-Neimi: All I can do is expose what I see

02 November 2025

After 54 years in exile, a prominent Syrian novelist returns to a Damascus he no longer recognises 

Khalil Sweileh

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