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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.

Latest News

Explainer

How Iran war created unexpected economic beneficiaries

Amjad Kurdo / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images

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.

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

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.

A woman reacts during a mass funeral for former Lebanese minister Mohamad Chatah, who was killed in a bomb blast on Friday, at Al-Amin mosque in Martyrs' Square, 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) - RTX16WB3

Chatah's assassination marks rise of extremism

In Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, the forces of moderation are being displaced by the forces of extremism.

Lebanese Druze Leader Walid Jumblatt (2nd L) stands along side Shiite Muslim Cleric Hani Fahs (3rd L) during a sit in to show support for the Syrian people at in downtown Beirut, on February 22, 2012. AFP PHOTO/JOSEPH EID (Photo credit should read JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images)

Lebanese Shiite cleric calls for building inclusive state

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Lebanese Shiite cleric Hani Fahs said that the region must work toward peace, and citizens should work to build inclusive states.

Delegates are pictured prior to a meeting on Syria at the United Nations offices in Geneva December 20, 2013. REUTERS/Fabrice Coffrini/Pool (SWITZERLAND - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX16PNF

Syrian Kurds agree to disagree

Despite agreeing to speak with a single Kurdish voice at Geneva II, Syria's Kurds are far from united on how to administer the Kurdish areas in the future.

A general view shows Lebanon's Hezbollah supporters attending a ceremony in Beirut's southern suburbs, May 11, 2012. The ceremony was held to mark the completion of the Waed (promise) project for rebuilding Beirut's southern suburbs, which were destroyed during the July 2006 war with Israel. Hezbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said during the ceremony his militant group was capable of striking any target in neighbouring Israel, saying "the days when we fled and they didn't are over". REUTERS/Sharif K

Southern suburbs stand apart in Beirut

Al-Monitor tours Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah, to learn more about life there and residents’ views on Hezbollah’s Syria policy.

People run after what activists said was the return of government jet planes in Aleppo's al-Marja district December 23, 2013. More than 300 people have been killed in a week of air raids on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo and nearby towns by President Bashar al-Assad's forces, a monitoring group said on Monday. Many of the casualties, who included scores of women and children, were killed by so-called barrel bombs dropped from helicopters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. REUTERS/Saad AboB

Aleppo's bloodiest week

An exclusive report from Aleppo, which is facing the worst bombing of Syria's war.

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon (L) and Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi speak during a meeting in Mont Pelerin March 2, 2013. Ban and Syria mediator Brahimi expressed frustration on Saturday at the failure to end Syria's conflict and said the United Nations was ready to facilitate peace talks. Ban and Brahimi met in Mt. Pelerin, Switzerland, to discuss the two-year-old war that has killed more than 70,000 people. REUTERS/U.N. Photo/Evan Schneider/Handout (SWITZERLAND - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY) ATTENTION EDI

An appeal to Lakhdar Brahimi

A cease-fire and the immediate holding of Geneva II must be at the top of Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi and the UN's agenda.

Arab League-United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi gestures while answering journalists' questions at the end of a news conference after a meeting on Syria at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva December 20, 2013. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse (SWITZERLAND - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX16PPL

Iran, Saudi Arabia key to Syria peace conference

The Islamic Front snubs US Ambassador Robert Ford; Turkey rocked by scandal; reactions to the American Studies Association vote to boycott academic exchanges with Israel.

New Syrian Kurdish media find their voices

Syrian Kurds have their own newspapers and radio stations, but are beset by familiar political challenges.

Riot police use tear gas to disperse pro-Kurdish demonstrators during a protest in the southeastern Turkish town of Nusaybin, on the Turkish-Syrian border, November 7, 2013. Thousands of Kurds protested on Thursday against Turkish plans to build a wall along the Syrian border, calling it a move to stop Kurdish communities strengthening cross-frontier ties as Syria splinters from civil war. Nusaybin is separated from the Syrian town of Qamishli by a strip of no-man's land and barbed wire fencing. REUTERS/Str

Can Turkey’s Kurds, military ever reconcile?

A court case in Diyarbakir provides hope for the first time for reconciliation between the Turkish military and Kurdish citizens.

A weapons dealer checks AK-47 rifles before selling it to smugglers transferring it to Syria, at his house near the city of Mosul, 390km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, February 16, 2012. The weapons dealers sell a rifle for about $1000. REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags: CONFLICT) - RTR2XY8B

Iraqi weapons market surges during Syria conflict

The illegal weapons trade in Iraq has seen a spike in activity as armed sectarian militias grow more numerous and weapons are smuggled into Syria.

Residents and Kurdish fighters celebrate what they said was the liberation of their village from Islamist rebels near the city of Ras al-Ain November 5, 2013. The picture depicts a member of the Kurdish Youth Movement who died during the fighting. Redur Xelil, spokesman for the armed wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), said Kurdish militias had seized the city of Ras al-Ain and all its surrounding villages. Syrian Kurdish fighters have captured more territory from Islamist rebels in nor

Syrian and Iraqi Kurds more divided over Syria

The Syria war is proving to be a divisive, rather than unifying, force among the Kurds of Iraq and Syria.