Middle Orient

Since the opposition ousting of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Western powers have cautiously embraced Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa as the country’s new legitimate leader. The new Syrian government, consisting of technocrats and high-profile former dissidents of the Assad regime, is actively reaching out to international actors in a quest to …

On May 14, President Donald Trump stood smiling with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman and Syria’s self-declared leader, Ahmed al-Shara’a, on the sidelines of the President’s visit to Riyadh. After the get together, the President declared that the United States would lift sanctions on Syria and re-establish diplomatic …

Netanyahou admet qu’Israël arme des gangs à Gaza pour contrer l’influence du Hamas, et de nouvelles preuves montrent qu’Israël les paie pour piller l’aide humanitaire et mettre en œuvre son plan de nettoyage ethnique. En réponse, le gouvernement du Hamas a créé l’«unité Arrow». L’armée israélienne arme des gangs pour …

Britain’s Foreign Office met privately with a pro-Israel lobbyist to discuss arms exports to Tel Aviv, documents obtained by Declassified reveal. The meeting took place in October 2024 and was attended by Christian Turner, the political director at the Foreign Office, and Sir Trevor Chinn, a pro-Israel businessman from Britain. …

In the uneasy interstice between war and peace, Syria grapples with a question striking at the heart of national sovereignty, social cohesion, and institutional legitimacy: what to do with thousands of foreign jihadist fighters who can neither be expelled nor ignored. The recent move to integrate roughly 3,500 of these …

In a wide-ranging talk, former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford traced the astonishing political transformation unfolding in Damascus: from a 14-year civil war and the December 2024 collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime to the rise of Ahmed al-Sharaa—a former jihadist commander now serving as Syria’s transitional president. Ford began …

Several days have passed since a ground assault targeted Russia’s Hemeimeem airbase on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, yet neither Moscow nor Damascus has issued any official statement clarifying the incident. Behind the silence, however, it is widely believed that high-level, behind-the-scenes communications have taken place to address not only the attack …

While progress has been made between the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) and the Syrian Transitional Government on several issues—including a new agreement announced today concerning the Al-Hol camp—deep disagreements remain over the core issue of governance: centralization versus decentralization. Agreement to Repatriate Syrians from Al-Hol Camp …

The collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024 marked a watershed moment in Middle Eastern geopolitics. Abrupt and largely unforeseen by both regional and international actors, Assad’s fall brought an end to decades of autocratic rule and the relative stability that had defined Syria since Hafez al-Assad seized power …

Turkish Defence Minister Yaşar Güler confirmed on Wednesday that Ankara has begun training and advising Syrian military forces as part of a broader initiative to enhance Syria’s national defence capabilities. Speaking to Reuters in written responses, Güler stressed that the presence of over 20,000 Turkish troops in northern Syria will …