ع
Sections
  • Politics
  • Culture & Social Affairs
  • Business & Economy
  • Science & Technology
  • Documents & Memoirs
Regions
  • Gulf
  • MENA
  • Europe
  • USA
  • Asia
  • World
More
  • Videos
  • Cartoons
  • World in photos
  • Infographics
  • Profiles
  • Newsletter

LATEST ISSUE

Latest Issue
Magazine Archive
النسخة العربية
  • Politics
  • Culture & Social Affairs
  • Business & Economy
  • Science & Technology
  • Tag
  • 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
  •  Load More
  • Popular
  • Editor's Pick
US President Donald Trump speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as they meet to negotiate for an end to the war in Ukraine, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, US, August 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Politics

Trump-Putin meeting already seen as a win for the Kremlin

14 August 2025

Putin heads to Alaska, marking his first visit to the US in a decade and his first meeting with a US president since June 2021, when he shook hands with Biden in Geneva

Con Coughlin
Laura Salafia
Profiles

Tom Barrack: the businessman with a huge Middle East remit

08 August 2025

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
Lina Jaradat
Politics

Instead of respite, Gaza's war-torn brace for full Israeli occupation

16 August 2025

After nearly two years of bombing, death, and displacement, a further mass evacuation order from the north to the south is pending, with the Israeli endgame being the settlement of the Strip

Salem Al Rayyes
Al Majalla
Business & Economy

How Vision 2030 diversified the Saudi economy

16 August 2025

In the second instalment of a two-part series, Al Majalla looks at how Saudi Arabia moved from a horizontal to a vertical development model, powered by an ambitious package of reforms

Hussein al-Sharaa
Syrian Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra and Turkish Defence Minister Yaşar Güler hold up an MOU on security cooperation in Ankara on August 13, 2025. Syrian Foreign Ministry
Politics

The implications of expanded Syria-Türkiye military ties

15 August 2025

Israel has made clear its objection to Turkish military bases in Syria. Could a recently signed MOU between Ankara and Damascus to boost security cooperation threaten Türkiye's good ties with the US?

Omer Onhon

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter

Get the best of Al Majalla, straight to your inbox.

Your newsletter subscriptions are subject to Al Majalla privacy policy and terms and conditions.

OPINIONS

Suweida must be a warning, not a blueprint for northeast Syria

Haid Haid
Haid Haid

How Gaza’s storytellers use art to cling to memory and life

Houssam Marouf
Houssam Marouf

How Kuwait broke decades of political deadlock to kickstart reform

Khalaf Al-Duwai
Khalaf Al-Duwai

Rupert Murdoch: the media mega-mogul taking on Trump

Con Coughlin
Con Coughlin
MORE FROM OPINIONS
logo
  • Politics
  • Culture & Social Affairs
  • Business & Economy
  • Science & Technology
  • Documents & Memoirs
  • Gulf
  • MENA
  • Europe
  • USA
  • Asia
  • World
  • Videos
  • Cartoons
  • World in photos
  • Infographics
  • Profiles
  • About Al Majalla
  • Al Majalla Team
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact us
logo

© Al Majalla Magazine. All Rights Reserved.

0:00:00
0:00:00