Syria Conflict

Tribal and Bedouin fighters deploy in the western neighborhood of southern Syria's predominantly Druze city of Suwayda amid clashes with Druze gunmen on July 19, 2025.

Fresh fighting in Syria's Suwayda leaves one dead: What to know

Renewed clashes in Suwayda highlight the fragile security situation in the Druze-majority province.

Ongoing construction work is pictured at a site in Marota City, a new mixed-use development project near the Umayyad Square in Damascus on July 22, 2026. Syria's new leaders, who inherited a dilapidated economy, are trying to attract capital without waiting for the full lifting of international sanctions. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP via Getty Images)

UAE investment fuels Syria's postwar economic recovery with $7B property deal

The deal would see UAE-based Arada develop a major real estate project in Damascus.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrive for a joint press conference following their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Feb. 4, 2025.

Analysis

Why Turkey welcomes Israel-Syria talks despite mounting red lines

Turkey supports US-backed Israel-Syria talks but sees little prospect of a lasting accommodation until the Israeli elections.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

cards

Sharaa taps Visa as Syria reconnects to global finance: What to know

Visa and Mastercard announced Wednesday that their networks can now be used to make international card payments in Syria.

Latest News

Syrian Airlines expands Europe comeback with Vienna, Copenhagen flights

A Syrian Air passenger jet lands at Aleppo airport on March 18, 2025, the first aircraft to land after it was shut during the offensive that toppled former President Bashar al-Assad.

Exclusive

Israel recalibrates Syria policy, explores path to security deal

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (C) watches as US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack prepares to sign an agreement in Damascus on September 16, 2025. Shaibani announced on September 16 a plan backed by Jordan and the United States to restore calm to Druze-majority Sweida province, which witnessed deadly violence in July. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP) (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images)

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Explainer

SDF chief Kobane’s Damascus visit a high wire act for Syria’s Kurds

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Kobane speaks during a press conference in Syria's northeastern city of Hasakeh on Dec. 6, 2024.

US lifts Syria's terror designation after 47 years

ANKARA, TURKEY - JULY 08: U.S. President Donald Trump (R) meets with Ahmed al-Sharaa, President of Syria (L) for bilateral talks at Beştepe Presidential Compound during the NATO Summit on July 08, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey. Leaders from NATO's 32 countries, plus NATO allies like Ukraine, gathered in the Turkish capital to discuss a range of issues involving spending targets, defense industrial production, and support for Ukraine, among other topics. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Can EU's fear of terrorists give Turkey clout in ocean drilling?

Following his threats to flood Europe with Syrian refugees, the Turkish president is now trying to use Islamic State suspects as leverage.

Russia, Turkey plugging away at Syria's northeast, Idlib

Amid complications with Turkey, Russia claims it stays the course in Syria.

Russian and Syrian national flags are pictured near the northern Syrian village of Zor Magar, as seen from the Turkish border town of Karkamis in Gaziantep province, Turkey, October 23, 2019. REUTERS/Huseyin Aldemir - RC15D8F01E00

Russia faces dilemmas in northeastern Syria

While it has added some fortifications, Moscow is challenged with new political and military uncertainty over Syria's northeast.

Did Turkey backstab Syrian opposition's National Army?

Turkey's catch-and-release handling of 18 regime fighters captured by the Syrian opposition shocked many opposition forces.

Russia seems set to establish new military base in northeast Syria

Russia has been fortifying its military presence in Qamishli and appears to be constructing a military base there, its third in Syria.

Displaced Syrians demand to return, seek regime-YPG exit

Hundreds of Syrians displaced from Tell Rifaat and its surroundings are demonstrating for the right to return home and for opposition forces — not the regime — to control the area.

Re-empowerment of career diplomats could help Turkey salvage global image

Operation Peace Spring undeniably revealed what was long feared: Turkey’s inability to explain itself to the world because of structural damage to the traditional workings of the Foreign Ministry, alienated skilled career diplomats and new agencies that are active in foreign policy.

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Tom Brenner? - RC2HAD9VX4UB

Absent new agreements, Trump-Erdogan meeting ends with pledge to work together

US President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Washington to rebuild US-Turkish relations without setting a clear path for progress.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan shake hands at the end of a joint news conference at the White House in Washington, U.S., November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts - RC2LAD9PASW2

Erdogan’s US welcome sparks fear Trump will halt Turkey sanctions

As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the White House today amid protest from Congress, aides in Congress and experts lose faith that President Donald Trump will impose automatic sanctions on Turkey for taking delivery of a Russian air defense system over four months ago.

Eastern Syria fighters accused of brutality after videos emerge

The commander of Ahrar al-Sharqiya, an armed faction whose fighters have been accused of extrajudicial killings, spoke to Al-Monitor about his militants' relationship to the eastern Deir ez-Zor region.

Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring effectively divides Syria into five sectors

The essential division of northeastern Syria into five sectors has created a highly combustible environment where one small spark is enough to start a massive fire.

An Islamic State flag flies over the custom office of Syria's Jarablus border gate as it is pictured from the Turkish town of Karkamis, in Gaziantep province, Turkey August 1, 2015. Karkamis is a Turkish town of 10,500 people that sits directly opposite the border post. Shut for more than a year, the military sealed the crossing with a breeze block wall a few months ago. Behind it, just inside Syria, the black flag of Islamic State flaps in the breeze. Karkamis lies on the northeastern edge of a rectangle o

Turkey-Europe ties brace for fresh rift over stateless IS militants

The fate of foreign Islamic State militants captured in Syria is looming as a big headache for Turkey as many of them are now stateless, expelled from the citizenship of European countries.