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  • Politics
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  • Syrian economy

A sheep herder near the Rumaylan military site in northeastern Syria, January 8, 2025 AFP

Resource-rich yet underdeveloped, Syria’s northeast could pay dividends

The land between the Euphrates and Tigris yields oil, water, and wheat, to name but three, yet it has had no infrastructure investment for decades. As a result, it is unproductive. That could change.

Attiya Khalaf Al-Attiya 11 February 2025
Stacks of Syrian pound banknotes are piled on a currency trader's stall at a market in the city of Manbij, currently controlled by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, in the Aleppo province on January 4, 2025. Aaref WATAD / AFP

Sanctions relief alone won’t kickstart Syria's economy

Without a coordinated international effort to lift sanctions, Syria will struggle to secure foreign investment

Léa Eid 10 February 2025
A US dollar note is placed on a stack of Syrian pounds at a market in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeast Syria on September 10, 2019. AFP / Delil SOULEIMAN

Rebuilding Syria's economy will be challenging but comes with reward

Estimates of reconstruction costs range up to $500bn, and most Syrians only get a few hours of electricity per day. The country's priorities are numerous and urgent, but amid the gloom, there is hope.

Abdelkader Hasria 27 January 2025
Dr Maysa Sabrin, Syria's newly-appointed central bank governor Axel Rangel Garcia

Syria becomes first Arab state with woman central bank chief

Maysa Sabrin joins illustrious figures such as Russia's Elvira Nabiullina, Europe's Christine Lagarde, and America's Janet Yellen, proving women heading central banks is no longer a rarity

Toufic Chanbour 16 January 2025
A container crane at the port of Latakia in western Syria on 30 December 2024. Aaref Watad / AFP

Syria’s new rulers to audit Iran loan spending for illegalities

While financial obligations outlive regimes, Damascus may be able to show that some of the $7.6bn in loans from Tehran was spent repressing the Syrian people—and that Iran knew about it

Joseph Daher 31 December 2024
A man looks out to the devastation while clearing rubble and debris from a house at the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees south of Damascus on December 22, 2024. MUHAMMAD HAJ KADOUR / AFP

Syria begins to piece together a country and economy in ruins

War caused its GDP to fall by 86%, leaving 69% of Syrians impoverished. Regime change brings hope for an economy once one of the Middle East's strongest. This is its story and a look ahead.

Abdulfattah Khattab 24 December 2024
Syrian Red Crescent rescuers attend to displaced people arriving from Lebanon at the Jdeidat Yabus border crossing in southwestern Syria on October 7, 2024. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP

War in Lebanon puts Syria's already struggling economy under further strain

Syria's deep economic reliance on Lebanon, shaped by years of conflict and international sanctions, has made regime-held areas particularly vulnerable to Lebanon's economic and political instability

Haid Haid 13 October 2024
The al-Assad government’s embrace of the neoliberal market involves privatisation and subsidy cuts, which are causing widespread suffering and only benefitting the elite Ewan White

Already struggling Syrians brace for more austerity measures

The al-Assad government's embrace of the neoliberal market involves privatisation and subsidy cuts, which are causing widespread suffering and only benefitting the elite

Joseph Daher 15 April 2024
The World Food Programme will have to pull its general assistance for Syria in January, at a time when it is needed in the war-torn country more than ever. Ewan White

Syria crisis compounds as humanitarian aid runs out

The World Food Programme will have to pull its general assistance for the country in January, at a time when it is needed in the war-torn country more than ever

Joseph Daher 20 December 2023
Women buy cosmetics in Syria's northeastern city of Hasakeh on June 12, 2018. AFP

How Syria's war forced women to break the glass ceiling

In the aftermath of war, due to the death, disability and displacement of men, many Syrian women have become the sole providers in their households. This has had a profound impact on Syrian society.

Alhasna Adra 15 December 2023
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Politics

Trump-Xi meeting is about much more than trade

22 October 2025

US and Chinese leaders have locked themselves into a downward spiral that goes far beyond tariffs, exports, and rare earths. This is about the future and who controls it.

Shirley Ze Yu
Governor of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, delivers his speech at the opening of the ninth edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII), in Riyadh, 28 October 2025. Reuters
Business & Economy

Investing in people and AI: Saudi Arabia’s vision for a new Middle East

29 October 2025

Now in its ninth edition, Riyadh's Future Investment Initiative has transformed from an investment forum into a geo-economic platform redefining how nations link peace, progress, and technology

Omar Harkous
People walk amid the destruction in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on October 11, 2025, a day after a ceasefire took effect. AFP
Politics

Gaza's partition: Palestinian peril dressed up as pragmatism

26 October 2025

Presented as post-war stabilisation, an experiment in controlled fragmentation appears to be underway, with diplomacy, security, and commerce converging to cement a new geopolitical order

Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy
Opinion

West Bank annexation could upend the region

24 October 2025

Jordan's 1994 peace treaty with Israel remains a cornerstone of regional stability. It has survived two intifadas and recurrent Gaza conflicts, but annexation would push it to the brink

Alice Gower
Secretary of State Marco Rubio stands with Rwanda's FM Olivier Nduhungirehe and Democratic Republic of Congo's FM Therese Kayikwamba Wagner, after signing a peace agreement in Washington on June 27, 2025. AP / Mark Schiefelbein
Politics

The flaw in America's Africa policy

27 October 2025

With China, Türkiye, the Gulf states, and Russia offering tangible investment and influence in Africa, the US's reliance on facilitation and hollow declarations has reduced it to a mere observer

Sergey Eledinov

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OPINIONS

From siege to slaughter: the fall of el-Fasher

Amgad Fareid Eltayeb
Amgad Fareid Eltayeb

Trump, Xi cool China-US trade tensions...for now

Con Coughlin
Con Coughlin

Israeli strikes leave Gaza ceasefire in tatters

Fares Garabet
Fares Garabet

The flaw in America's Africa policy

Sergey Eledinov
Sergey Eledinov
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