Middle Orient

Cyprus has been unlawfully detaining Syrians for years. With the EU’s support, it started deporting them too. For Abu Iskander Alshami the question of returning to a post-Assad Syria is fraught with uncertainty. “My situation is similar to 90% of Syrians – undecided,” he told The New Arab. We spoke …

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) declared a ceasefire with Turkey after jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan called for the group’s dissolution and disarmament. Outlawed Kurdish militants on Saturday declared a ceasefire with Turkey following a landmark call by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan asking the group to disband. It was the …

Royal Air Force surveillance flights towards Gaza keep taking place when hostages are released. The Royal Air Force (RAF) has operated surveillance flights near Gaza on all five days of the ceasefire that Hamas released hostages, Declassified has found. No spy planes were sent towards the strip on the other …

Israel struck sites in southern Syria again earlier this week, in what has become a regular occurrence since the fall of the Assad regime late last year. Forging national unity in Syria will be enough of a challenge on its own but is only further exacerbated by Israel’s repeated strikes …

Political and democratic conditions need to be in place for disarmament process to succeed, group says The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting in an insurgency in Turkey since 1984, on Saturday unilaterally declared a ceasefire and said it would heed its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan’s call to …

Après quatre décennies de violence, le fondateur et dirigeant emprisonné du Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, appelle le groupe armé à abandonner le combat et à s’autodissoudre. Mais cet appel, lancé jeudi 27 février 2025, n’est qu’un début. C’est un appel historique ou, du moins, qui pourrait …

Trump’s remarks on annexing territory and recognizing Russian and Israeli territorial gains may align with his geopolitical ambitions, but the disruption to longstanding norms of fixed borders sets a risky precedent. Amid ongoing discussions over Donald Trump’s plans for trying to resolve conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, the U.S. president …

Iran won’t engage in any direct negotiations with the US as long as the Islamic Republic is subject to pressures, sanctions and threats, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi stressed. Speaking at a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart in Tehran on Tuesday, Araqchi said Iran’s stance on the nuclear negotiations …

Despite a Sunni majority in Syria, the Assad regime has managed to maintain its dominance through a combination of autocratic and kleptocratic rule, using patronage to secure loyalty. On 8 December 2024, following a 10-day uprising, Bashar al-Assad, son of Hafez al-Assad, was brought down along with the entire Assad …

It has the feeling of a ghastly ending, one pushed along by desperation and eagerness. First, levelling Gaza and turning it to an uninhabitable moonscape, with the promise of a territory free of Palestinians. Then, displacing and destroying the already precarious holdings of Palestinian residents in the West Bank, all …