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  • Syria

The "Unity of Position" conference, held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Hasakah on August 8, 2025. Social media

Heading for a showdown? SDF conference riles Damascus

Syria's government needs to centralise decision-making and bring armed groups to heel, but Kurds in the north-east want to establish a 'coalition of the unwilling' with Druze and Alawites. What now?

Subhi Franjieh 13 August 2025
The largest Syrian flag was raised on the highest pole, 110 meters high, in Tishreen Park in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on June 4. Getty

Taif offers clues on the right governing formula for a new Syria

Questions of autonomy, integration, participation, and administration are key to resolving Syria's many disputes among its many groups. Could a 1989 agreement for Lebanon show the way?

Sihanouk Dibo 13 August 2025
Laura Salafia

Tom Barrack: the businessman with a huge Middle East remit

Donald Trump's ambassador to Türkiye and envoy to Syria has been having some critical conversations in regional capitals since April, from disarming Hezbollah to preventing another war with Israel

Omer Onhon 10 August 2025
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on September 19, 2023. Turkish Presidency Press Office / AFP

Israel and Türkiye must clarify their red lines on Syria

Discussions aimed at reaching a mutual understanding are vital to preventing miscalculation from either side

Michael Harari 08 August 2025
the city of Sweida, following renewed fighting between Bedouin fighters and Druze gunmen, despite an announced truce, in Syria July 18, 2025. Reuters

Illicit economies play big role in Syria’s post-Assad flashpoints

In areas like Daraa and Sweida, local groups are elbowing their way into some of the smuggling voids left by Assad's army and pro-Iranian groups like Hezbollah. That means more to fight over.

Caroline Rose 02 August 2025
A currency exchange shop in the Syrian capital Damascus, on April 16, 2025. AFP

Towards a structural plan to drive development in Syria

Damascus is getting help from abroad, but it needs to set its economic stall out with a plan to rebuild its economy. An organised and disciplined fiscal and monetary policy will keep bankruptcy at bay

Hussein al-Sharaa 31 July 2025
Bedouin families who left Sweida take a shelter at a school in the village of El Sahoah in Deraa Governorate, Syria, July 28, 2025. Yamam Al Shaar / Reuters

Sweida violence: a good day for Israel, a bad day for Syria

Damascus fell into a trap when it sent its troops racing south as fighting erupted between Druze and Bedouins. Why? Because in Israel's arc of fragmentation, Syria is the last piece of the puzzle.

Majed Kayali 29 July 2025
a mural depicting Lebanese Druze politician Walid Jumblatt (bottom, R) and Syrian Druze nationalist leader Sultan al-Atrash, in the predominantly Druze city of Beit Jann on November 16, 2023. John MacDougall/AFP

Druze political figures who transformed Syrian history

For more than a century, Druze soldiers and politicians have made their mark on today's Syria. They are still writing their own history, as the recent Sweida violence shows.

Sami Moubayed 25 July 2025
A member of Syrian security forces stands near a vehicle carrying aid as they make their way to Sweida, at Bosra al-Sham town, near Deraa, Syria July 23, 2025. Karam al-Masri/Reuters

After Sweida: the path to peace just got more complicated

The terrible violence in southern Syria this month shows what needs to be done by all actors, and shows what fate awaits if they do not.

Michael Harari 24 July 2025
A member of the Internal Security Forces stands watch at a checkpoint in the village of Al-Mazra'a, after days of violence in Sweida between Bedouin fighters and Druze factions, on 20 July 2025. Karam al-Masri/Reuters

Solution needed: Sweida’s ceasefire is a pause, not peace

The guns may have fallen silent but in Syria's Druze-dominated southern city, they have enforced the status quo. That is dangerous, since it fails to recognise that Syria has now fundamentally changed

Haid Haid 21 July 2025
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AFP / Al Majalla
Politics

Trump's Board of Peace gives hints of his vision for a new world order

24 January 2026

Critics worry the BOP is a bid to dismantle the post-1945 international order and replace it with structures under the US president's direct control, with scope stretching well beyond Gaza

Tarek Rashed
Opinion

The battle for the state is reshaping regional alliances

18 January 2026

From Yemen and Syria to Sudan and Libya, there is a concerted effort to reassert state authority and thwart moves toward the proliferation of quasi-states and fragmentation

Ibrahim Hamidi
Al Majalla
Politics

'Gaza has broken every record of modern warfare'

23 January 2026

Former Médecins Sans Frontières president Rony Brauman explains to Al Majalla how Israel's war on Gaza has produced unprecedented suffering and exposed the collapse of international law

Elie Kossaifi
Al Majalla
Culture & Social Affairs

Al Majalla's Film Watch: the best of Youssef Chahine

23 January 2026

On the centenary of his birth, Al Majalla highlights some of the many standout films of the legendary Egyptian director's illustrious career

Areej Jamal
A man walks past a mural depicting SDF supporters raising a flag showing the face of Abdullah Öcalan, the founding leader of the PKK, in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli on December 16, 2024. Delil Souleiman/AFP
Politics

The SDF: from chosen US security partner to liability

21 January 2026

How a regional and international climate increasingly aligned with Damascus is placing pressure on the Syrian Democratic Forces to prioritise Syrian unity

Subhi Franjieh

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OPINIONS

Four miscalculations by the SDF

Ibrahim Hamidi
Ibrahim Hamidi

Greenland: the frozen Arctic island that Trump wants

Al Majalla - London
Al Majalla - London

Lebanon's handling of Syrian prisoners will be telling

Alia Mansour
Alia Mansour

Lebanon finds an anthem out of the reach of drones

Samer Abou Hawwach
Samer Abou Hawwach
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