In Israel, the Druze community occupies a complex position: celebrated as loyal citizens by the state, yet subject to systemic inequalities that have persisted since the 1950s. Their story has returned to the spotlight amid speculation about Israel’s intentions toward Syria’s Druze-majority Suweida province — a prospect that analysts say is unlikely, but revealing of deeper regional dynamics.
Bottom Line Up Front
Trump officials have given Lebanon’s government an ultimatum to take control of Lebanese Hezbollah’s arsenal of heavy weapons or forgo U.S. efforts to compel Israel to withdraw from its positions in southern Lebanon.
U.S. officials expect Lebanon’s cabinet, at a meeting this week, to issue an Executive Order on Hezbollah disarmament that satisfies core U.S. demands without triggering conflict with Hezbollah’s supporters and Lebanese Shia Muslims more broadly.
Iran’s regime is built on the belief that it must export its revolutionary Islamist vision, overthrow secular governments, and unify the Muslim world under a single Shiite Islamist state. This project is its purpose. It is what gives the Islamic Republic of Iran its identity. Its constitution enshrines that vision, and its institutions — from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to its intelligence services — are structured around advancing this goal.
There are times when it is difficult to bring myself to my writer’s desk, when I know there is something that desperately needs to be acknowledged, but I barely have the words for it. And if I could find them, I ask myself what effect could one small voice possibly have. Is this even a meaningful process? Daily seeing pictures of children with bones sticking out of their emaciated flesh, let alone children missing limbs, while most of the western world continues support for Israel, pierces me with a sense of despair at our seeming helplessness to stop this horror.
Unifying and deradicalizing Syria’s armed forces will be the regime’s most formidable challenge.
The United States has now lifted all sanctions on Syria, except on some individuals and entities associated with the former Assad regime. Additionally, the United States has revoked the foreign terrorist organization designation for Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). This comes after Washington approved the Syrian leadership’s plan to incorporate thousands of foreign jihadists into the new Syrian army, dropping its longstanding demand that the new leadership deport or detain foreign fighters.
Earlier this year, the Arab Gulf states were riding high. The energy crisis that followed the coronavirus pandemic had filled their coffers and renewed their roles as the stewards of global oil markets—and, in Qatar’s case, a reliable source of liquefied natural gas. Over the past few years, the Gulf countries have tactfully navigated the great-power competition between China, Russia, and the United States and successfully managed their relations with regional rivals, including Iran and Turkey.
“As an Arab Sunni, I am horrified that what criminal hordes committed is being enshrined as something that represents me or my community morally”, Yassine Sweiha writes.
As an Arab Sunni, I am horrified that what criminal hordes committed—first along the coast, and now in Sweida—is being enshrined as something that represents me or my community morally. I am appalled by the belief, shared by many, that such acts can lead us anywhere politically. The core of this country—its largest and most widely distributed community—must not be reduced to a pitiful reenactment of the Serbs of the 1990s: a blind, hate-filled group locked in a genocidal relationship with everyone around them. The Serbs of the ’90s had a lost paradise—Tito’s Yugoslavia. These heedless neo-Umayyads seem to view their lost paradise as Assad’s Syria, with an Abu Uday flavor. Shame on you for thinking we would become that.
Unifying and deradicalizing Syria’s armed forces will be the regime’s most formidable challenge.
The United States has now lifted all sanctions on Syria, except on some individuals and entities associated with the former Assad regime. Additionally, the United States has revoked the foreign terrorist organization designation for Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). This comes after Washington approved the Syrian leadership’s plan to incorporate thousands of foreign jihadists into the new Syrian army, dropping its longstanding demand that the new leadership deport or detain foreign fighters.
On July 29, 2025, Mazloum Abdi, commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), reiterated his commitment to a decentralized governance model for northeastern Syria while expressing concerns about the integration of SDF institutions into the Syrian state. In an interview with Al-Arabiya, Abdi emphasized the importance of constitutional guarantees to address apprehensions among SDF components, particularly following recent sectarian violence. This article outlines Abdi’s stance on the March 10, 2025, agreement with the Syrian transitional government, the challenges to its implementation, and the broader implications for Syria’s unity and Kurdish rights.
When Mediterranean Airlines became the first European carrier to resume flights to Damascus in 2025, it wasn’t just a business decision—it was a move shrouded in crime and political intrigue. This investigation reveals how the Greek airline partnered with wanted arms dealers, drug traffickers, and migrant smugglers, all while evading scrutiny from EU authorities. From FBI fugitives in Syria to a convicted smuggler in Libya, the trail of corruption stretches across borders—raising urgent questions about who enabled this shadowy operation.