In mid-August, Syria’s Druze minority crossed a historic threshold. In its southern province, demonstrators demanded self-determination for the first time, rejecting Damascus’s authority and waving Israeli flags – a stunning departure for a community long known for cautious neutrality. The shift came in the wake of July’s violence in Suweida, …

In a move that sparked international condemnation, a group of Israeli settlers crossed into Syrian territory near the village of Bariqa in Quneitra province on 18 August and attempted to establish a new settlement on Israeli military-controlled land. The incursion, three kilometres away from Alonei Habashan, an Israeli settlement located …

Iranian parliamentarians introduced a three-part bill on August 28 to withdraw Iran from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), likely to pressure the E3 (the United Kingdom, France, and Germany) to not reimpose UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions on Iran.[1] The bill would require Iran to leave …