Features

Features FILE - An M-48 tank which fired uranium-tipped shells in the 1970s sits at the Nevada Test Site on Aug. 24, 1999. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch, File)

Trump's Big Nuclear Reactor Push Raises Safety Concerns

A huge nuclear deal announced by the Trump administration earlier this week provides a multi-billion-dollar incentive for the US government to issue permits…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features A Saudi Anti-Narcotics official displays bags of Captagon pills seized in Jeddah hidden inside a shipment of pomegranates, April 25 (AFP)

Lebanon’s Drug Empire Faces Beginning of Its End

A sense of optimism is growing within Lebanon’s security establishment that 2026 could mark the end of the country’s “drug world,” a shadow economy born out of…

Thaer Abbas (Beirut)
Features Lebanese army soldiers stand next to the wreckage of a vehicle targeted by an Israeli drone in the village of Harouf in the Nabatieh Governorate, southern Lebanon, 25 October 2025. EPA/STRINGER

Lebanese Army Walks Political Tightrope to Disarm Hezbollah

Lebanon's army has blown up so many Hezbollah arms caches that it has run out of explosives, as it races to meet a year-end deadline to disarm the Shi'ite…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features Sudanese residents gather to receive free meals in el-Fasher, a city besieged by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than a year, in the Darfur region, on August 11, 2025. (AFP)

El-Fasher's Fall to RSF Risks New Sudan Split, Warn Analysts

Paramilitary forces' claimed capture of el-Fasher, a city in Sudan's Darfur, could mark a turning point in the country's two-year war and stoke fears the…

Features  President-elect Catherine Connolly reacts as she stands on a stage at Dublin Castle, on the day of the announcement of the results of the Irish presidential election in Dublin, Ireland, October 25, 2025. (Reuters)

Ireland’s President Elect Is a Left-Wing, Anti-Establishment Figure Who Is Outspoken on Gaza

Ireland's president for the next seven years is an independent lawmaker who has long spoken in support of Palestinians and has been vocal about her distrust of…

Features A woman votes during the 2022 parliamentary elections in Tripoli, Lebanon. (AP)

Lebanese Parties Eye Alliances in Preparation for Next Year’s Parliamentary Elections

The majority of Lebanon’s political parties have kicked off their preparations for next year's parliamentary elections as debate continues to rage over how…

Caroline Akoum (Beirut)
Features Palestinians harvest olives in the occupied West Bank village of Turmus Ayya © Hazem BADER / AFP

Vandalism and Attacks: Settler Violence Disrupts West Bank Olive Harvest

The scene shocked many and highlighted the violence of this year's olive harvest in the Israeli-occupied West Bank: a young masked man clubs an older…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features Drone image shows destruction in a residential neighborhood in Gaza City – Reuters

Humanitarian Crisis, Aid Situation Unchanged in Gaza Strip

Hamas said on Friday it had received “clear guarantees” from Egypt, Qatar, and Türkiye, along with “direct assurances from the United States,” that the Gaza…

Asharq Al Awsat (Gaza)
Features A boy pushes a wheelchair through the rubble of buildings destroyed in the war between Israel and Hamas, in the al-Nafaq area of the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (AP)

Gaza: Buried Under 61 Million Tons of Rubble

After two years of war, Gaza is buried under more than 61 million tons of debris and three quarters of buildings have been destroyed, according to UN data…

Features Iraqi Elections AFP GETTY

Iraq Faces Elections at a Delicate Moment in the Middle East

Iraq is weeks away from parliamentary elections that will set the country’s course during one of the Middle East's most delicate moments in years. While the…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features Photo circulating of Katibat al-Ghuraba camp in Harem, Idlib countryside, Syria

Has Syria’s New Gov’t Begun Confronting Foreign Fighters?

Sources in Idlib province told Asharq Al-Awsat that “things are on track to be resolved” following a security operation targeting the “Katibat al-Ghuraba” …

Asharq Al Awsat (Damascus, London )
Features  UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres addresses the audience during a press conference, part of the 16th United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD) ministerial conference, in Geneva on October 22, 2025. (AFP)

How Will the Next UN Chief Be Chosen and Who Wants the Job?

A new United Nations Secretary-General will be elected next year for a five-year term starting on January 1, 2027. Here are the potential candidates so far…

Features Iranian women shop in a store at the Tehran Bazaar after the approval of the bill to remove four zeros from the national currency, in Tehran, Iran, October 5, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Iran Risks Severe Economic Downturn, Unrest as Renewed UN Sanctions Bite 

Iran's economy is at risk of simultaneous hyperinflation and severe recession, officials and analysts say, as clerical rulers scramble to preserve stability…

Features Lebanese President Joseph Aoun meets US envoy Tom Barrack at the Baabda presidential palace, July 2025. (AP)

Lebanon at Political, Security Crossroads as Risks of Escalation with Israel Rise 

Lebanon stands at a political and security crossroads amid mounting external pressure, a deadlocked political landscape, and escalating military tensions…

Caroline Akoum (Beirut)
Features  Smoke billows over the village of Aaichiyeh after Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjeyoun in southern Lebanon, October 20, 2025. (Reuters)

Israel Still Fires on Lebanon Almost a Year After a Ceasefire. Some Predict the Same for Gaza

As a tenuous ceasefire took hold in Gaza this month, Israel launched more airstrikes on southern Lebanon — 11 months into a ceasefire there. The bombardment…

Features Hezbollah supporters watch a televised speech delivered by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in Dahieh in November 2019. (AFP)

Deadly Blows and Setbacks Deepened Hezbollah’s Crisis During War with Israel

Months before his assassination, former Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah believed that the “support war” his party had launched against Israel in…

Ali Saray (Beirut)
Features 
Mohammed Abu Moussa, 45, who was released from Israeli detention after 20 months, poses for a photo with his children, Jourie and Hamid, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Saturday, Oct, 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Father Returns from Israeli Detention to Find Gaza and His Family Shattered

Amid the joy of being released after 20 months of suffering in Israeli prisons, Mohammed Abu Moussa could tell something was wrong. Descending from the bus…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features A group in favor of Gen. Augusto Pinochet celebrate the 50th anniversary of a military coup led by Pinochet, near La Moneda presidential palace, in Santiago, Chile, Sept. 9, 2023. (AP)

From Barracks to Palace: Soldiers Who Led Military Coups to Become State Leaders

Weeks of nationwide Gen Z protests in Madagascar sparked by power and water shortages escalated and led to a military coup that forced President Andry…

Features People take part in a youth-led protest against corruption and calling for education and healthcare reforms, in Rabat, Morocco, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Gen Z Protests against Corruption and Inequality are Shaking Morocco. Here's What to Know

Demonstrations in more than a dozen cities have jolted Morocco for weeks, with the young people behind them showing they can translate digital discontent into…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features A portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is pictured with its frame broken, in a Syrian regime's Political Security Branch facility on the outskirts of the central city of Hama, following the capture of the area by anti-government forces, on December 7, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)

The Vanishing Act: How Assad’s Top Henchmen Fled Syria, and Justice

Not long after midnight on December 8, 2024, dozens of people gathered in the darkness outside the military section of the Damascus International Airport…

Features An undated picture allegedly found in the personal laptop of Hannibal al-Gadhafi and released by Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters on September 27, 2011 shows Hannibal al-Gadhafi, son of Libyan leader Moammar al-Gadhafi, in Rome. (AFP)

What Happened to the Gadhafi Family After Libyan Leader's Death?

After nearly a decade of pre-trial detention in Lebanon, Hannibal al-Gadhafi, one of longtime Libyan ruler Moammar al-Gadhafi’s sons, was ordered by a Lebanese…

Features A drone view of imprints, made by bulldozer tracks, on the soil covering a burial trench of a mass grave in the eastern Syrian desert near the town of Dhumair, February 27, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

Assad-era Plot to Hide Thousands of Syria's Dead Turned Desert into a Mass Grave

There was no mistaking the reek of death that rose along the Syrian desert highway four nights a week for nearly two years. It was the smell of thousands of…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features The Tomahawk has been a mainstay of the US armed forces for over four decades. US NAVY / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

'Wonder Weapon'? Five Things about US Tomahawks Coveted by Ukraine

The Tomahawk cruise missile, set to be at the center of talks between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, has been a mainstay of the US…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features Hamas police officers patrol a street in Gaza City (Reuters)

Where Are the Armed Groups That Fought Hamas in Gaza Now?

During the two-year Israeli war on Gaza that followed Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, the group faced growing internal challenges, including clashes with armed…

Asharq Al Awsat (Gaza)