Damascus witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Chevron and the Qatar-based company Power International Holding on February 4. The goal of the new agreement is to push forward with the “development of the country’s first offshore oil and gas field,” Syrian state media SANA said. US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack wrote that he was “honored to witness Syria’s historic milestone for offshore gas exploration.”
Making the remarks on Monday, Jabbar-Ali Zakeri pointed to the increase in the number of the Chinese trains passing through Iran, and emphasized the need to reduce transportation costs between Iran and China in order to boost exports.
China is receiving a wave of high-profile visits by world leaders lately. At least five world leaders have visited Beijing in January alone. And the momentum continues on February.
When The Guardian reported on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s recently concluded China trip, it stated, “Starmer hopes his China trip will begin the thaw after recent ice age.”
Fantasies of Fragmenting Iran Only Serve Israeli Interests.
A troubling convergence has emerged among Western think tanks, Israeli politicians, and exiled opposition figures advocating for the partition of Iran along ethnic and sectarian lines. This strategy represents a dangerous escalation from traditional regime change toward what can only be described as regime destruction, a policy shift that would benefit Israeli regional ambitions while catastrophically destabilizing the Middle East and creating humanitarian disasters that would dwarf the Syrian refugee crisis.
The South Caucasus – comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia – is a small but geopolitically significant region, susceptible to intense competition between regional and global powers. It is also situated at a strategic crossroads between Russia, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, which was followed by the expulsion of 120,000 ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan’s forcible takeover of the entire region in September 2023, shifted the regional balance of power in favour of Azerbaijan.
Israel’s recognition of Somaliland has realigned the Horn of Africa, linking India, Israel, the UAE, and Ethiopia to secure Red Sea routes and counter rivals.
On 26 December 2025, Israel formally recognized what it termed the Republic of Somaliland, marking a significant shift in its policy toward the Horn of Africa.
The Israeli military claims it has definitive proof that at least six Al Jazeera journalists are operatives for Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups.
The Israeli Defense Forces accused journalists Anas al-Sharif, Alaa Salama, Hossam Shabat, Ashraf al-Saraj, Ismail Abu Omar, and Talal Aruki of working with the terror groups as members of their military and propaganda wing.
Syrians are looking ahead to the next stage in the country’s development, with governance and democracy crunch issues that could determine Syria’s future.
How do you govern a country you never expected to rule? That is the question now facing Syria’s transitional government, as it seeks to undo half a century of kleptocratic Baathist misrule following a stunning rebel offensive in late 2024 that saw the Assad regime fall.
Property Restitution, Security Conditions, and Minority Rights in Northwest Syria
The Afrin Region and the Kurdish Populations
The following report, commissioned as a field assignment by the Middle East Forum, is an in-depth examination of the Afrin region located in northwest Syria along the border with Turkey. The region is known for having had a majority Kurdish population prior to the war and up to 2018, when much of the Kurdish population was displaced during an offensive led by Turkish-backed Syrian insurgents who, operating under the framework of operation “Olive Branch,” seized control of the area. This report, based on interviews conducted with Syrian government officials in the Afrin region, travel within the region, and other sources, focuses on the situation following the Assad regime’s fall, particularly the prospect for the return of the original displaced Kurdish population. The report also analyzes the status of the Afrin region’s small Yezidi minority.
Under the new arrangements, the legal status of these prisons and detention centers will be restructured within a unified judicial and penal framework overseen by the state and the Ministry of Justice, Syria TV reports.
The transfer of authority over detention centers holding members of the so-called Islamic State, along with associated security camps, from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to the Syrian government marks a profound shift in the management of one of Syria’s most sensitive and complex security files.