Features

Features People gather near a damaged building, in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 13, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

What Role Did the ‘Mossad-Tehran Branch’ Play in Operation Rising Lion?

Just hours after launching its military operation “Rising Lion” against Iran, Israel revealed an extensive and long-standing intelligence campaign conducted by…

Nazir Magally (Tel Aviv)
Features  A building stands damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 13, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Israeli Attack Exposed Iran's Military 'Vulnerability', Say Analysts

Israel's strikes on archfoe on Iran Friday exposed severe weaknesses for Tehran that have hampered its ability to respond militarily, analysts said. Israel…

Features Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri speaks during the International Conference on the Legal-International Claims of the Holy Defense in the capital Tehran on February 23, 2021. (AFP)

Top Iranian Generals Killed in the Israeli Attack

Israel targeted leading members of Iran's armed forces on Friday during its unprecedented onslaught hitting military and nuclear targets across the country. …

Features A customer inspects mangoes at a fruit stall in Damascus’s Al-Shaalan market, which now sells varieties that were unavailable during President Bashar al-Assad’s rule, such as kiwi, bananas, and pineapples. (AFP)

US Sanctions on Syria: From Hafez al-Assad to al-Sharaa 

Syrians have lived under the shadow of US sanctions for 46 years, spanning generations who know no other reality. These sanctions have become woven into every…

Joe Macaron
Features Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points to a red line he drew on the graphic of a bomb used to represent Iran's nuclear program as he addresses the 67th United Nations General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in New York, September 27, 2012. (Reuters)

After Years of Waiting, Israel’s Netanyahu Finally Makes His Move on Iran

Iran once ridiculed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the boy who cried wolf for his constant public warnings about Tehran's nuclear program, and…

Features Fire fighters work outside a building that was hit by Israeli airstrikes north of Tehran, Iran, 13 June 2025. (EPA)

Iran and Israel's Open Warfare After Decades of Shadow War 

Israel said on Friday it carried out strikes in Iran, a day before talks between Iran and the US about Tehran's escalating uranium enrichment program were set…

Features Damages are seen in a building after an explosion in a residence compound after Israel attacked Iran's capital Tehran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

What to Know about Israel's Major Attack on Iran

Israel launched a major attack on Iran, drawing their long-running shadow war into the open conflict in a way that could spiral into a wider, more dangerous…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features Palestinians celebrate atop an Israeli tank on the separation barrier near Khan Younis on October 7, 2023 (AP). 

Who Remains from the Symbols of October 7?

On October 7, 2023, Hamas-affiliated media accounts posted a video showing several of the group’s prominent leaders outside Gaza falling into a “prostration of…

Asharq Al Awsat (Gaza)
Features This satellite image provided by Planet Labs PBC shows trucks lined up on a dock as the Russian-flagged cargo ship, Siyanie Severa, unloads its cargo, May 29, 2025, in Bata, Equatorial Guinea. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

Russia Skirts Western Sanctions to Ramp up Its Military Footprint in Africa 

Even as it pounds Ukraine, Russia is expanding its military footprint in Africa, delivering sophisticated weaponry to sub-Saharan conflict zones where a…

Features Palestinians collect what remains of relief supplies from the distribution center of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 5, 2025. (Reuters)

Palestinians’ Dangerous Ordeal to Reach Israeli-Approved Aid in Gaza

When university professor Nizam Salama made his way to a southern Gaza aid point last week, he came under fire twice, was crushed in a desperate crowd of…

Features People carrying boxes and bags containing food and humanitarian aid packages distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation last month in Rafah, in southern Gaza. (AP)

Johnny Moore… What Do We Know About Chairman of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

As the world condemned the killings this week of dozens of hungry Palestinians near US-backed aid sites in Gaza, the group responsible for distributing that…

Ephrat Livni (New York)
Features FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump attends a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (not pictured) at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, June 5, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

The 911 Presidency: Trump Flexes Emergency Powers in His Second Term

Call it the 911 presidency. Despite insisting that the United States is rebounding from calamity under his watch, President Donald Trump is harnessing…

Asharq Al Awsat

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Features People walk along a street, on the day US President Donald Trump announces that he would order the lifting of sanctions on Syria, in Latakia, Syria May 14, 2025. REUTERS/Karam Al-Masri

Homes Smashed, Help Slashed: No Respite for Returning Syrians

Around a dozen Syrian women sat in a circle at a UN-funded center in Damascus, happy to share stories about their daily struggles, but their bonding was…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features A schoolgirl drinks water after her classes, on a hot summer day in Lahore on May 26, 2025, as state government announced early summer vacations for schools owing to rising temperatures. (AFP)

School’s Out: Climate Change Keeps Pakistan Students Home

Pakistan's children are losing weeks of education each year to school closures caused by climate change-linked extreme weather, prompting calls for a radical…

Features A health-care worker tends to a Palestinian child at Al-Aqsa Hospital.Photograph by Adel Hana / AP

Gaza Doctors Give their Own Blood to Patients after Scores Gunned Down Seeking Aid

Doctors in the Gaza Strip are donating their own blood to save their patients after scores of Palestinians were gunned down while trying to get food aid, the…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features Haftar visits a military manufacturing facility (Libyan National Army) 

From Haftar to Dbeibah: The Map of Control and Influence in Libya

Libya, once held together under the iron grip of Muammar Gaddafi, exploded into chaos after his ouster in 2011. Fourteen years later, the country remains…

Jamal Jawhar (Cairo)
Features Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid takes part in a demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nationalist coalition government's judicial overhaul, in Tel Aviv, Israel June 17, 2023. (Reuters)

What Might Happen in Israel’s Parliamentary Dissolution Vote?

Opposition party Yesh Atid has submitted a vote to dissolve the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset, for June 11, amid rising tensions in the ruling right…

Features US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet in the White House in April. (dpa)

Alarm in Tel Aviv After Removal of Pro-Israel Officials from Trump Administration

The dismissal of pro-Israel officials in the White House sparked concerns in Tel Aviv as US President Donald Trump’s “America First” sidelines allies and…

Kifah Zboun (Ramallah)
Features  Palestinians carry the body of Hossam Wafi who, according to family members, was killed in an Israeli strike, during his funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP)

Father of Six Killed ‘For Piece of Bread’ During Gaza Aid Distribution

Cries of grief echoed across southern Gaza's Nasser Hospital Monday as dozens came to mourn Hossam Wafi, after the father of six was killed while attempting to…

Features Nusra fighters train in Syria’s Idlib Province – August 16, 2024 (AFP)

Angry Groups Emerge and Fade in Syria, Terror Cells or Shadows?

When Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met US President Donald Trump in Riyadh on May 14, the encounter marked a striking departure from Syria’s political norm,…

Sultan al-Kanj
Features Karol Nawrocki, candidate for the 2025 Polish presidential election supported by Poland's right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, flashes the victory sign in front of supporters as exit polls were announced on tv during their election night event at the Mala Warszawa Theater in Warsaw, Poland, during the second round of the presidential elections on June 1, 2025. (AFP)

The Election of a Trump Ally in Poland Could Alter EU and Ukraine Policies 

Poland has elected Karol Nawrocki, a conservative historian and staunch nationalist, as its next president in a closely watched vote that signals a resurgence…

Features Palestinians walk next to a donkey-drawn cart loaded with aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, near an area of Gaza known as the Netzarim corridor, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

Gaza Aid System Under Pressure as Thousands Seek Food

After a slow and chaotic start to the new US-backed aid system in Gaza, thousands of Palestinians have been arriving at distribution points, seeking…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features People walk near Harvard University on May 28, 2025 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Getty Images/AFP)

Foreign Students Seek to Quit Harvard amid Trump Crackdown 

Harvard University has been flooded with requests from foreign students to transfer to other institutions as US President Donald Trump's administration seeks…

Features Destroyed combat vehicles stand on a street at the Sharg Elnil area, which was recently liberated by the Sudanese army, in Khartoum, Sudan March 15, 2025. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

People Returning to Sudan’s Capital: Khartoum is Not Habitable

Destroyed bridges, blackouts, empty water stations and looted hospitals across Sudan bear witness to the devastating impact on infrastructure from two years of…

Asharq Al Awsat (Khartoum)