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  • SDF

AFP_Al Majalla

Forging Syrian national unity is key to regional peace

Damascus has already taken steps towards this end, but international support will still be vital. It can also draw on relevant elements from Iraq's governing model.

James Jeffrey 22 October 2025
Al Majalla

Ilham Ahmed on negotiating Syria’s future

In a wide-ranging sitdown interview with Al Majalla, AANES Foreign Affairs Chief Ilham Ahmed lays out the lingering points of contention with Damascus and the way forward

Ibrahim Hamidi 03 October 2025
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
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. Reuters

Fading hopes that the SDF will agree to Syrian integration

The autonomous Kurdish-led group in Syria's north-east has been protected by the US for a decade, but the move now is towards integration with Damascus. Unfortunately, the SDF has not got the memo.

Charles Lister 11 July 2025
SDF leader Mazloum Abdi (C) and Hamid Darbandi (C-R behind), envoy of Iraqi Kurdish politician Masoud Barzani, attend the pan-Kurdish "Unity and Consensus" conference in Qamishli in northeastern Syria on April 26, 2025. Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP

In U-turn, Syrian Kurds are now demanding federalism

Having agreed on an outline for integration with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa last month, Kurdish-led groups have now issued a raft of contradictory demands, angering both Damascus and Ankara

Omer Onhon 30 April 2025
The US-led Operation Inherent Resolve coalition against the Islamic State (IS) trains SDF fighters in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province on September 7, 2022. Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP

Where does the counter-IS mission stand after Sharaa-SDF deal?

An SDF shift away from the US partnership and the risk of IS resurgence could undo years of hard-won progress in the fight against terrorism

Caroline Rose 21 April 2025
Ahmed al-Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi during the signing of the agreement to integrate the SDF into state institutions, Damascus, March 10, 2025. AFP

Reading between the lines of the Sharaa-Abdi deal

Al Majalla's exclusive interview with YPG commander Mazloum Abdi gives great insight into a landmark deal reached between Damascus and Syria's Kurds. This is my take on what Abdi really meant.

Omer Onhon 14 March 2025
Ahmed al-Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi during the signing of the agreement to integrate the SDF into state institutions, Damascus, March 10, 2025. AFP

Sharaa's political pragmatism and the myth of sectarianism

After a hugely important deal to integrate Syria's Kurds, there is a growing realisation among myriad factions that national unity is crucial for the country's survival

Ahmed Maher 13 March 2025
Yusra Na'im

Mazloum Abdi agrees to merge the SDF into Syria's state army

Al Majalla interviewed the SDF commander who shared his thinking prior to the landmark decision, which also guarantees constitutional rights for Syrian Kurds

Ibrahim Hamidi 11 March 2025
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Ewan White
Politics

How Trump reshaped the world

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
Politics

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
A displaced woman rests in Tawila, in the country's war-torn western Darfur region, on 28 October 2025, after fleeing el-Fasher following the city’s fall to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). AFP
Politics

From siege to slaughter: the fall of el-Fasher

29 October 2025

After over 500 days of a crippling blockade, the city finally fell to the RSF, cementing their control of the giant Darfur state in western Sudan and giving them full access to key supply routes

Amgad Fareid Eltayeb
Activists hold a demonstration in lower Manhattan against the arrest by ICE of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University, on 20 March 2025 in New York City. SPENCER PLATT / AFP
Politics

The Gaza war has damaged the West

01 November 2025

The West's response to Israel's war on Gaza exposed its weakness and damaged its collective reputation, while also eroding civil liberties at home

Christopher Phillips
Al Majalla
Business & Economy

FII draws up roadmap for responsible investment and AI

03 November 2025

A major global conference in Saudi Arabia shifts the focus of investment and expenditure to programmes and policies with a human-centred impact, not least in healthcare and education

Omar Harkous

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OPINIONS

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Pasolini finds a new voice in French

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RSF massacres in el-Fasher

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