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June 10, 2026

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A long convoys of Iraqi diesel-laden tanker trucks line up along the highway Tartus-Baniyas highway as they wait to unload their cargo at the Baniyas port refinery on the Mediterranean Sea, on April 15, 2026.

Syria says Iraqi oil shipments surge as Damascus courts foreign energy investment

Speaking at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum in Washington on Tuesday, Syrian Petroleum Company CEO Yousef Qiblawy said Iraq's overland oil exports through Syria have expanded rapidly in recent months.

An old locomotive sits outside the Hejaz rail station in old Damascus on February 23, 2010. The Hejaz railway ran from Damascucs to Medina in Saudi Arabia and was part of the Ottoman railway network. AFP PHOTO/LOUAI BESHARA (Photo credit should read LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images)

Explainer

Saudi Arabia, Turkey advance plans to revive historic Hejaz Railway

Turkish and Saudi officials signed agreements as part of a Turkish push to revive the Hejaz Railway linking Turkey to the Gulf through Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

An Airbus A321 airliner arrives at the Mehrabad international airport during the delivery of the first batch of planes to the Iranian state airline Iran Air in the capital Tehran on Jaunary 12, 2017. - The aircraft arrived as part of an order for 100 other Airbus planes with a list price of around $20 billion (19 billion euros) on December 22, placed after the lifting of international sanctions on the Islamic republic. It will be used for internal flights landed at Tehran's Mehrabad airport. (Photo by ATTA

Israel-Iran escalation grounds flights across parts of Middle East

Iran suspended flights across all airports after Israeli strikes hit the country.

Amjad Kurdo / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images

Explainer

How Iran war created unexpected economic beneficiaries

The Strait of Hormuz crisis is reshaping global energy and trade flows, creating opportunities for economies far beyond the Middle East.

Latest News

Egypt rejects Syrian ambassador as ties strain under Sharaa

Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) chats with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as they arrive for a family photo after a working session of the European Council and regional partners as part of an informal meeting in Nicosia on April 24, 2026.

What Barrack’s expanded role in Syria, Iraq signals for US policy

US ambassador to Turkey Thomas Barrack attends a meeting with President Donald Trump and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Oval Office at the White House on Sept. 25, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Amberin Zaman

Chief Correspondent

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Jared Szuba

Defense and Security Correspondent

In Washington, DC, reporting on defense, national security, military

Beatrice Farhat

Associate Editor (Lebanon)

In Beirut, reporting on regional news, culture, conflict

Danny Makki

In London, reporting on Syrian politics and culture

Ali Hashem

In Doha, reporting on Iran, regional politics, conflict

Cagatay Cebe

In Istanbul, reporting on security and counterterrorism

Iraqi soldiers inspect a vehicle at a check point in west Baghdad, January 6, 2014. Iraq's prime minister urged people in the besieged city of Falluja on Monday to drive out al Qaeda-linked insurgents to pre-empt a military offensive that officials said could be launched within days. In a statement on state television, Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite Muslim whose government has little support in Sunni-dominated Falluja, called on tribal leaders to drive out militants who last week seized key towns in the desert

Anbar Council calls for end to military siege by Iraqi government forces

Local leaders in Anbar seek a local solution to the current crisis.

Gunmen fighters walk in the streets of the city of Falluja, 50 km (31 miles) west of Baghdad January 3, 2014. Sunni Muslim tribesmen backed by Iraqi troops fought al Qaeda-linked militants for control of Iraq's western province of Anbar on Friday in a critical test of strength for the Shi'ite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Those fears were stirred anew on Thursday when tribesmen, angry at the central government in Baghdad and what they perceive as Sunni marginalisation in politics, clashed

ISIS foreign fighters spur backlash in Iraq, Syria

Many Sunni Iraqis and Syrians are fighting back against the foreign fighters and extreme practices of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

People carry the coffin of former Lebanese minister Mohamad Chatah's bodyguard Tarek Badr, who was killed in a bomb blast on Friday, during his mass funeral at al-Amin mosque in Martyrs' Square in downtown Beirut December 29, 2013. Chatah, who opposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was killed in the attack which one of his political allies blamed on Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah militia. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST OBITUARY) - RTX16WAX

Lebanon's age of extremism

Is the center of gravity in the Syria war expanding from Damascus to Beirut?

Lakhdar Brahimi (C), the U.N. envoy on Syria, speaks with members of the French delegation prior to a meeting at the United Nations offices in Geneva December 20, 2013. REUTERS/Fabrice Coffrini/Pool (SWITZERLAND - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX16PMV

Geneva II must achieve peaceful solution

The Syrian government, the Syrian opposition and the world must take advantage of the opportunities afforded by Geneva II to bring peace to Syria.

Turkish soldiers with armoured vehicles guard the entrance of Apaydin refugee camp in Hatay province, on the Turkish-Syrian border, May 12, 2013. Turkey accused a group loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday of carrying out car bombings that killed 46 people in a Turkish border town of Reyhanli and said the risk of unrest spreading to Syria's neighbours was increasing. Syrian Information Minister Omran Zubi denied any Syrian involvement and rejected what he called "unfounded accusations". REUTE

Turkey declares vanishing truck to Syria 'state secret'

Turkey’s government has used the "state secret" shield to conceal the cargo of a truck suspected of transporting arms to Syria and banished the prosecutor who attempted to search the vehicle.

A member of al-Jabha al-Islamiya (the Islamic Front) takes position on a armoured vehicle at a checkpoint between the village of Kafaroumeh and the town of Maaret al-Naaman, to prevent members of the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from advancing towards Jabal Al-Zawiya, in Idlib January 6, 2014. REUTERS/Fadi Mashan (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTX174EP

Erdogan under pressure as Syrian crisis spreads to Iraq

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has limited regional influence and few good options as the pressure builds to slow the spread of the Syria war.

Children go to school on a damaged street in Duma neighbourhood in Damascus October 12, 2013. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY EDUCATION) - RTX148Z5

Syrian education a casualty of war

Syria’s education sector has suffered a heavy blow from the fighting, as security concerns, internally displaced students and the emigration of professors abroad has led to a sharp drop in the level of education in the country.

Investigators work at the site of an explosion at the entrance to a train station in Volgograd December 29, 2013. A female suicide bomber blew herself up in the entrance hall of the Russian train station on Sunday, killing at least 13 people in the second deadly attack in the space of three days as the country prepares to host the Winter Olympics. REUTERS/Sergei Karpov (RUSSIA - Tags: CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST TRANSPORT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTX16WBP

Russia's Syria policy linked to Chechnya, terrorism

The United States and Russia cooperate to combat terrorism in Syria.

Saudi Arabia's Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saoud (R) welcomes French President Francois Hollande (L) at the Saudi Royal palace in Riyadh December 29, 2013. REUTERS/Kenzo Tribouillard/Pool (SAUDI ARABIA - Tags: POLITICS ROYALS) - RTX16WSG

Saudi Arabia, France make their move in Lebanon

Hezbollah reacts to Saudi Arabia providing $3 billion in aid to the Lebanese army to buy French weapons.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry walks to his plane with Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Saud al-Faisal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh January 5, 2014. REUTERS/Brendan Smialowski/Pool (SAUDI ARABIA - Tags: POLITICS ROYALS) - RTX1738Z

The Saudi challenge to US Syria policy

Saudi Arabia proposes a military force to deter Iran and assist rebel forces to overthrow the Syrian government.

A man waits in front of the closed Cilvegozu border gate near the town of Reyhanli on the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay province February 12, 2013. A deadly minibus blast on Turkey's border with Syria was meant to target a Syrian National Council opposition delegation, the group said on Tuesday, but the Turkish authorities said it was too early to apportion blame. The minibus, bearing Syrian number plates, exploded at a crossing on the border near the Turkish town of Reyhanli on Monday, killing 14 people a

Ankara suspected of arming jihadists in Syria

Turkish security discovered a truck full of weapons en route to Syria, creating yet another controversy for the Erdogan government.

A man stands guard near the home of prominent Sunni Muslim lawmaker Ahmed al-Alwani after clashes with Iraqi security forces in the centre of Ramadi, December 28, 2013. Iraqi security forces arrested Alwani, a supporter of anti-government protests, in a raid on his home in the western province of Anbar, sparking clashes in which at least five people were killed, police sources said. They said those killed in the fighting included three of Alwani's bodyguards, his sister and his brother. REUTERS/Ali al-Mashh

Resolution of Anbar crisis requires security, political coordination

Baghdad must combine security and political efforts to bring an end to the current crisis involving al-Qaeda and the Sunnis in Anbar province.