November, 2025

• 27 November

  Foreign fighters, a thorny dilemma for Syria’s nascent state – Enab Baladi

  

  The muhajirin file, or foreign fighters, has become a thorny issue for the new Syrian state, caught between loyalty to the fighters who formed a “hard core” within Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the external interests of the state over which HTS came to hold sway, and between honoring its …

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• 27 November

  Tabtabai Killing Shakes Hezbollah’s Leadership Structure

  

  The assassination of Haitham Ali Tabtabai, Hezbollah’s top military commander, deep inside Beirut’s southern suburbs has dramatically reshaped Lebanon’s internal security scene. Hours after the strike, Israel’s Alma Center published an updated chart of Hezbollah’s command structure that included senior political figures such as Mohammad Raad, head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary …

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• 27 November

  War on Gaza: Arab despots’ failure to stand up to Israel could fuel an explosion

  

  The world is watching a famine develop in Gaza that could kill many times more than the 24,000 Palestinians who have already perished in Israel’s merciless blitzkrieg. Last month, more than 90 percent of Gaza’s population was estimated to be facing high levels of acute food insecurity, categorised as Phase …

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• 27 November

  Guns, cash and American aid: Investigation reveals Israel’s support for Gaza militia

  

  A Sky News investigation has uncovered new details about Israel’s support for a Palestinian rebel group with extremist ties and a history of looting aid trucks. As negotiators debate who will run Gaza after the war is over, Israel is already shaping a new reality on the ground. In recent …

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• 26 November

  Syrian Kurdish commander says he wants to visit Turkey, meet with jailed PKK leader

  

  Mazlum Abdi, commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has said he is ready to travel to Turkey and meet with jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Öcalan, as Turkish lawmakers plan to make the first parliamentary visit to his island prison under a new peace initiative. Abdi …

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• 26 November

  Syrians displaced by war are returning to find homes occupied by foreign fighters

  

  Under a golden autumn sun, Abdallah Ibrahim harvests fistfuls of hard, green olives with evident delight. “We were denied this pleasure for the last 14 years,” he sighs. Barrel bombs and constant shelling caused his family and most of the residents of his village, Al Ghassaniyeh, to flee during the …

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• 26 November

  Hezbollah confirms Israeli strike on Beirut killed senior leader

  Hezbollah has confirmed senior commander Haitham Ali Tabatabai was killed in an Israeli air strike on a suburban area of Beirut on Sunday. The group said “the great commander” was killed in “a treacherous Israeli attack on the Haret Hreik area in the southern suburbs”. Mr Tabatabai was deputy to …

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• 24 November

  Iran Update, November 21, 2025

  

  Toplines Some Syrian General Security Service (GSS) units are improving their counter-insurgency approach in rural minority areas by relying on relationships with locals. The GSS arrested a large Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)-affiliated Assadist cell in Sheikh Bader, Tartous Province, on November 12.[1] Independent Syria researcher Gregory Waters reported on …

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• 24 November

  The Ursula doctrine

  Brussels’ bid to promote an ‘Economic Security Doctrine’ epitomises the EU Commission chief’s grand strategy: to repeatedly churn out vacuous grand strategies You’ve heard of the Draghi report. You might remember the Competitiveness Compass. You probably don’t recall the Small Affordable Cars initiative. And what was the Budapest Declaration again? …

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• 24 November

  West tells Zelenskyy: “We don’t welcome you. We welcome Ukrainian people in your person”

  

  This will be a text about how our international partners are reacting to “Mindichgate.” I’ve heard a lot over these past days. Throughout all the years of the full-scale war, the vast majority of us, when speaking publicly, maintained the president’s line. Even when it was difficult, we restrained ourselves …

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