World News Insights: Opinion Articles

What is happening today in the Middle East and its zones of intense conflict can only be described as seismic shifts, reshaping the contours of power and rewriting the rules of engagement. Systems and organizations have either fallen or been scaled back, while other nations find themselves facing a…

Bashar al-Assad has fallen, and with him, a grand destructive project has collapsed. We must always keep this in mind when discussing Syria and its future, what it should look like, how we should deal with it, and what we should expect from it. The fall of Assad is not like the fall of Saddam…

Assad's regime has fallen. Syria’s eternal leader, who left the country brimming with prisons, death, and exile, has been toppled. The Syrians have turned the page on the worst chapter in their country’s modern history. This moment can only be one of overwhelming joy for every mother who lost her…

After the celebrations end and the last statues of al-Assad are toppled in the squares, Syrians will face a new and uncertain day. Who will govern them? A single individual or committees? Or will there be more than one Syria – three or four perhaps? The situation may not be so straightforward and…

The future of Hezbollah is unclear, as the divergent signals suggest that the direction it will take has yet to be decided. Secretary-General Sheikh Naeem Qassem and Hezbollah parliamentary deputies have begun to place greater emphasis on national political issues in their statements, stressing…

In the game of power that shapes crises and wars, the former Syrian regime relied on Russia and Iran to prevent its collapse at the hands of the opposition that had swept the country, and it was eventually left with nothing but pockets under siege that were always bound to collapse. Russia, with…

The long night in Damascus was nothing short of seismic. Opponents could not have predicted the rapid collapse of the Syrian regime. The army was not prepared to fight the opposition advance that was gaining momentum. Iran was helpless, Russia did not want to get involved and Hezbollah is exhausted…

As soon as the "unity of arena" war on Lebanese soil ended, Hezbollah decided to push the conflict across the Syrian border - a step that has immense local, regional, and international repercussions during this critical juncture. Hezbollah is undoubtedly well aware of this move's political…

For a long time, I have been writing that the Syria we had known is gone. As things develop on the ground, we are discussing signs of deterioration, and consequently, the lessons that this deterioration offers our region. That is what matters. These lessons must be retained if we are to see a…

Almost dormant for four years, last week the volcano of the Syrian uprising erupted with a vengeance. In four days, its lava covered the country’s second largest city Aleppo before moving towards central cities of Hama and Homs on its way to the capital Damascus. The force that carried out the…

Lebanon is facing a historic test after having been dragged into a perilous war against its will. Lebanese blood was spilled, infrastructure was destroyed, and tens of thousands of families were displaced for long periods. The enemy has erased border towns, depriving residents of shelter. All the…

When it comes to the Arab Levant, it is difficult to take a sentence in a single direction or have it convey a single emotion. The immense relief at Lebanese Hezbollah being weakened is born coupled with fury at the Israeli war machine’s crimes against the people of Lebanon, particularly the…