Features

Features An aerial view shows smoke rising over Sweida during clashes between Druze and Bedouin tribes, July 19, 2025. (DPA)

Sweida Emerges as First Big Test for Syria’s New Era

In late July, the spiritual leadership of Syria’s Druze minority in Sweida announced the creation of legal and security committees to run the southern province…

Sultan al-Kanj
Features Reservists and former pilots from the Israel Air Force take part in a protest outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, 12 August 2025. (EPA)

As Netanyahu Expands Gaza War, Some Reservists Grow More Disillusioned

As Israel seeks to expand its offensive in Gaza, a measure of how the country's mood has changed in the nearly two-year-old conflict is the discontent evident…

Features United States President Donald J Trump (R) meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 18 August 2025. (EPA)

Takeaways from Trump’s Meeting with Zelenskyy and Europeans: Praise, Security Talks, More Meetings 

During their second meeting in the Oval Office this year, President Donald Trump said the US would be willing to support European efforts to police any peace…

Features Iranians shop in the Grand Bazaar in Tehran on August 13, 2025. (AFP)

Iranians Struggle with GPS Disruption After Israel War

The streets of Tehran have become a confusing maze for driver Farshad Fooladi amid widespread GPS disruption, still ongoing nearly two months after the end of…

Features People carry Syrian flags of the opposition as they celebrate the ouster of the Assad regime in Damascus, in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, 08 December 2024. (EPA)

Mistrust and Fear: The Complex Story behind Strained Syria-Lebanon Relations

A lot has happened in just a year on both sides of the Lebanon-Syria border. A lightning offensive by opposition factions in Syria toppled longtime autocrat…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features UNIFIL peacekeepers secure the area in Khardali, southern Lebanon, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP)

Trump Administration Wants to End UN Peacekeeping in Lebanon, but Europe Is Pushing Back

The future of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon has split the United States and its European allies, raising implications for security in the Middle East and becoming…

Features  Palestinian children haul jerrycans of water collected from a distribution point in Gaza City, Aug. 12, 2025, amid scorching temperatures. (AP)

Heat and Thirst Drive Families in Gaza to Drink Water That Makes Them Sick

After waking early to stand in line for an hour under the August heat, Rana Odeh returns to her tent with her jug of murky water. She wipes the sweat from her…

Features (FILES) US President Donald Trump meets with Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, on July 16, 2018 (Photo by Alexey NIKOLSKY / Sputnik / AFP)

What to Know about Past Meetings between Putin and His American Counterparts

Bilateral meetings between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterparts were a regular occurrence early in his 25-year tenure. But as tensions…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features Israeli soldiers operate, near the border with Gaza, in Israel, August 13, 2025. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

20 Years after Its Landmark Withdrawal from Gaza, Israel is Mired There

Twenty years ago, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, dismantling 21 Jewish settlements and pulling out its forces. The Friday anniversary of the start of the…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features Pictures of Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Israeli strikes are displayed in Behesht Zahra Cemetery in southern Tehran, Iran, July 11, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Diplomacy or Defiance: Iran’s Rulers Face Existential Choice After US-Israeli Strikes

Weakened by war and diplomatic deadlock, Iran’s clerical elite stands at a crossroads: defy pressure to halt its nuclear activity and risk further Israeli and…

Features Low water levels are seen at the source feeding the pumping station of the Beirut and Mount Lebanon Water Establishment in Dbayeh © Joseph EID / AFP/File

Water Shortages Plague Beirut as Low Rainfall Compounds Woes

People are buying water by the truckload in Beirut as the state supply faces its worst shortages in years, with the leaky public sector struggling after record…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features FILE - A canoe, bottom right, glides on Mendenhall Lake, in front of the Mendenhall Glacier, on Sunday, May 18, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer, File)

Alaska: A Source of Russian Imperial Nostalgia

Alaska, the US state that will host the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump on Friday, is a source of imperial nostalgia and often less-than…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features Photo posted on Larijani’s Telegram account last May

Iran Faces Power Struggle Over Nuclear Talks Management

A renewed debate is simmering in Tehran over whether Iran’s nuclear file should remain under the Foreign Ministry or be returned to the Supreme National…

Adil Al-Salmi (London)
Features US President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit on July 7, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. (AP)

Trump and Putin: A Strained Relationship 

Donald Trump styles himself as a strongman. And that's exactly what he sees in Vladimir Putin. Their complicated relationship will be put to the test at a…

Features T-shirts with images of Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump are displayed for sale at a gift shop in central Moscow, Russia, August 12, 2025. (Reuters)

What Deal Might Emerge from Trump-Putin Summit and Could It Hold?

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss a possible deal to end the war in Ukraine when they meet on Friday in Alaska for a…

Features Sudanese residents gather to receive free meals in El-Fasher, a city besieged by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than a year, in Darfur region, on August 11, 2025. (AFP)

Sudan Refugees Face Cholera Outbreak with Nothing but Lemons for Medicine 

In the cholera-stricken refugee camps of western Sudan, every second is infected by fear. Faster than a person can boil water over an open flame, the flies…

Features Supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah group block the streets with burning tires as they rally in cars and motorbikes to protest the government's endorsement of a plan to disarm it, in Beirut's southern suburbs early on August 8, 2025. (AFP)

Can Hezbollah Transition to a Fully Political Party?

Mounting calls in Lebanon for Hezbollah to hand over its weapons and dissolve its armed wing have reignited debate over whether the party’s structure,…

Paula Astih (Beirut)
Features  Pro-Palestinian protesters shout slogans at Syntagma Square during a protest, part of demonstrations taking place across Greece, in Athens, August 10, 2025. (Reuters)

Three-Quarters of UN Members Support Palestinian Statehood 

Three-quarters of UN members have already or soon plan to recognize Palestinian statehood, with Australia on Monday becoming the latest to promise it will at…

Features Doaa, the widow of late soccer player Suleiman Al-Obeid, known as the "Palestinian Pele," who was killed by an Israeli strike targeting people waiting for humanitarian aid, according to the Palestine Football Association, looks at his picture while holding his shorts, as her son sits beside her inside their tent in Gaza City August 9, 2025. REUTERS/Ebrahim Hajjaj

Fans and Family Honor 'Palestinian Pele' Killed in Gaza

The "Pele" of Palestinian soccer hoped to keep scoring goals until he was 50. An Israeli tank shell dashed that dream a decade early, his family said, killing…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features German Chancellor Friedrich Merz looks on at the start of a cabinet meeting of the federal government in Berlin, Germany, 30 July 2025. (EPA)

As Gaza Faces Starvation, Reluctant Germany Starts to Curb Support for Israel

The worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel's plans to expand military control over the enclave have pushed Germany to curb arms exports to Israel, a…

Features FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin talk during the family photo session at the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam November 11, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/File Photo

Putin-Trump Summit: What We Know So Far

US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will hold talks in Alaska next Friday in a bid to end the war in Ukraine, which was…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features Hearing-impaired Palestinian influencer Basem Al-Habel, who turned to social media to document the war in Gaza through sign language, reaching a wide range of followers from both inside and outside of the enclave, films himself in Gaza City August 5, 2025.(Reuters)

Deaf Palestinian Uses Social Media to Highlight Gaza’s Struggles Through Sign Language 

Basem Al-Habel stood amongst the ruins of Gaza, with people flat on the floor all around him as bullets flew, and filmed himself using sign language to explain…

Features Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a press conference during his visit to Vienna, Austria, June 16, 2025. (AP)

Trust in Zelenskyy Is Diminished Even After Reversal of Law That Fueled Anti-Corruption Protests 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy quickly reversed course last month on a law that would have curbed the independence of the country’s anti-corruption…

Features A plume of smoke rises during an Israeli strike on Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on June 13, 2025. (AFP)

What to Know about Israel's Plan to Retake Gaza City

Israel announced early Friday that it plans to take over Gaza City, the largest urban area in the territory and one that has already suffered extensive…

Asharq Al Awsat