World News Insights: Opinion Articles

“Damascus overwhelms and overpowers,” as the Syrian saying goes. With the layers of civilization that have accumulated over the city (Aramean, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, Ottoman, French, and beyond) it has enjoyed a unique ability to adapt and evolve for thousands of years, becoming a…

As the Syrian army fell like a house of cards in the face of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and on the eve of the Israeli attack that destroyed this army’s military infrastructure with the press of a button, the rejectionist camp in Lebanon continued to call for a "strong" army in Lebanon(!) and to insist…

Regardless of what one says, words remain inadequate for doing justice to the major shift that Syria has seen over the past week. The end of the Assad dynasty after over half a century is a significant development, very significant indeed. It will be even more significant and will endure longer…

Rarely does local, regional and international attention shift to one man. This only happens at major turning points. It is no simple feat for a man in his 40s to arrive at the Umayyad Mosque square in Damascus to end over half a century of the Assad family’s rule in Syria. The Syrian Baath was…

Military and political analysts said winning the war in Ukraine has become an all-encompassing goal for Mr. Vladimir Putin. That outcome, they said, would justify to the Russian leader the conflict’s tremendous human and economic losses, safeguard Russia’s statehood and global stature and…

Nouri al-Maliki claims to be “shocked” by the developments in Syria. However, “shock” is not the right word. Instead, it reflects ideological self-delusion—a sentiment shared by many, including intellectuals, media figures, militias, and large segments of the public. They have crafted and believed…

The extraordinary accelerating shifts that have unfolded in the Middle East in recent months suggest that the region can expect even more in the coming weeks, months, and possibly years. The scale and depth of these changes witnessed in several "Sykes-Picot" countries, so to speak, mean that their…

I arrived late at night for my first-ever dispatch from Damascus. It was pitch black and quiet as could be. Early in the morning, I stepped out of the hotel and was taken aback by the sheer number of people on the sidewalk. With this image, which remains etched in my memory, the Syrian people left…

Syria has witnessed two major events, not just one: the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the rise of the Islamist group “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” to power. The fall of al-Assad is part of a series of collapses of the fascist regimes of the 1960s, including Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s…

From the very moment Syrian opposition armed forces entered the capital, Damascus, and overthrew Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Tel Aviv intensified its military operations against the Syrian state by land, air, and sea, in what looked like a full-scale war. This dramatic escalation has sparked…

Though not a satirical journal, the American magazine Foreign Policy has been publishing an essay by Muhammad-Javad Zarif every few years starting when he was Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations. The latest contribution came on December 2 with Zarif presented as “Vice President of Islamic…

It might be useful to rearrange the achievements and fears of the Syrian earthquake. 1. “Forever” is no more. Now, we have the freedom of free people, their choices, and their pursuits. The nightmare went on for 54 of Syria's 78 years of independence. 2. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps…