It’s all about Hamas’s disarmament

Palestinians walk amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza City, on November 29, 2025. The Gaza Strip is largely reduced to rubble after two years of fighting, sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which results in the deaths of 1,221 people. Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza kills at least 69,733 people, according to figures from the health ministry that the UN considers reliable. (Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto)NO USE FRANCE

US President Donald Trump’s successful negotiation of a cease-fire that ended the fighting in Gaza and secured the release of Israeli hostages was a significant diplomatic success.

Driven by exhaustion on both sides and the effective application of US leverage following Israel’s strike against Hamas leaders in Doha, the deal featured Israel and Hamas agreeing to terms that both had long resisted: Israel ending fighting without a guarantee of Hamas’s removal from power, and Hamas releasing all hostages without securing Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza.

From rebel factions to an army: Efforts to tame the Syrian National Army

Members of Syrian National Army, known as Free Syrian Army, stand on top of an armored vehicle in the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar in Sanliurfa province, Turkey, October 11, 2019. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

While some elements that constitute the Syrian National Army (SNA) have moved away from their revolutionary foundations and turned into a contractor structure for Turkey’s foreign operations across various regional conflicts, others are trying to transform into an organized army under civilian leadership. Although the SNA’s previous attempts at institutionalization and reform through coalitions of factions have failed, its current transformation looks different.

Bosnia’s forgotten war is still with us

Before Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine spawned the largest war in Europe since World War II, that grim distinction belonged to a conflict that accompanied the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s—the fighting to carve up or hold onto Bosnia-Herzegovina by Eastern Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croatians, and Muslim Bosniaks. In Bosnia, less than fifty years after the horror of the Nazi “final solution,” genocide returned to Europe.

A fragile dawn: Syria’s first year after Assad

If the new government can deliver justice, contain sectarian tensions, and foster equitable rebuilding, Syria will begin charting a path towards a better future

Damascus, Syria – On the night of the 8th of December 2024, Assad fled his presidential palace aboard a Russian military helicopter. In just 11 days, the house of cards he had fought for more than a decade to protect had come crumbling down.

SDF details joint raid campaign with Coalition in Deir Ezzor

TOL special operations units affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in coordination with the International Coalition to fight the Islamic State group, carried out a security operation in the countryside of Deir Ezzor (eastern Syria) on 7 December.

In a statement published on its official platforms on Tuesday, 9 December, the SDF said the operation resulted in the arrest of the Islamic State group’s “military emir”, codenamed “Abu Zubair/Sammak”, along with two members of his cell.

Socialism: Here, There, and Everywhere

It is hard not to notice the word “socialism” appearing steadily more often in steadily more places. Some appearances of the word aim to register dismissal or hate. But many appearances aim to register elevation and desire. Socialism in polls. Socialism as epithet. Socialism in Gracie Mansion. Socialism buried. Socialism resurrected. Socialism past. Socialism future.

Why Turkey and Qatar Should Be Kept Away From Gaza

One of the keynote speakers at the conference [hosted by Turkey] was Khaled Mashaal, a senior Hamas leader based in Qatar.

Mashaal declared that the time has come for the Muslim nation to “commit to the liberation of Jerusalem.” He defined this act as the symbol and strategic key to “liberating all of Palestine” — meaning the destruction of Israel and replacing it with an Islamist state.

Homs: A stability test that Syria’s new authorities are failing

Violence in Homs raises questions over whether Syria’s new authorities can enforce the rule of law, or if the country risks reproducing patterns of warlordism

In late November and early December, the Syrian central city of Homs descended into a cycle of revenge killings and sectarian-coded attacks that exposed deep fractures in Syria’s nascent post-Bashar Al-Assad governance.