Orientul Mijlociu

“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.

Executive Summary

The Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) launched a multilateral defence industry cooperation platform that represents Ankara’s strategic initiative to expand its economic and geopolitical influence in Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

Coinciding with the 17th International Defence Industry Fair (IDEF) in Istanbul, this development supports Turkey’s ambitions to merge a defence-industrial bloc rooted in Turkic cultural ties.

Over a week between November and December 2024, Syria’s Assad regime disintegrated under pressure from a rebel offensive after 14 years of war. This offensive was led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Salafi extremist group. Its leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, took the reins of the country and became Syria’s president on January 29, 2025.

Civilizational Decay, Entropy, and the Failure of Moral Evolution

ranThis paper examines the Islamic Republic of Iran not merely as a political system, but as a metaphysical and civilizational rupture. Contrary to narratives that view the regime as reformable, this paper argues that the Islamic Republic is rooted in an anti-anthropic paradigm — one that lacks a moral anthropology and operates outside the ethical architecture of civilization. Drawing from political philosophy, Islamic ethics, Iranian history, and entropy theory, the paper contends that the regime is a parasitic formation sustained by the historical disintegration of Iranian society and incapable of ethical evolution or civilizational integration.

Recently, Jordan joined the list of countries that have banned the Muslim Brotherhood: Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Austria. The move came after Jordanian authorities announced that they had arrested 16 people suspected of planning attacks aimed at “targeting national security, sowing chaos and sabotage.”

More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday. Israeli strikes overnight killed more than two dozen people, mostly women and children, according to health officials.

Why Have Israel’s Recent Wars Led to Little Terrorism and No Mass Uprising?

The Middle East is in crisis, and Israel is at the center of the storm. Since Hamas’s surprise attack on October 7, 2023, that killed around 1,200 Israelis, the Israeli military has assailed and occupied much of the Gaza Strip, ramped up operations in the West Bank, struck Houthi targets in Yemen, devastated Hezbollah in Lebanon, hit nuclear and military sites in Iran, and bombed parts of Syria. All these adversaries have links to terrorism: in the decades before October 7, Hamas and Hezbollah used terrorism against Israel, killing over 1,000 civilians as well as many soldiers. Through its proxies and on its own, Iran has attacked Israeli and Jewish targets around the world. The Trump administration recently redesignated the Houthis as a terrorist group, while the new ruler of Syria, Ahmed al-Shara, led a group once affiliated with al-Qaeda.