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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

Jordanian soldiers look on as a rainbow is seen the background, before the arrival of Syrian refugees who are fleeing the violence in their country, near the town of Ruwaished, 240 km (149 miles) east of Amman December 5, 2013. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed (JORDAN - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY CIVIL UNREST) - RTX165HC

Jordan's Daraa problem

The battle against Salafists in Daraa, Syria, is becoming a shared interest between Damascus and Amman.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) shakes hands with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif after a ceremony at the United Nations in Geneva November 24, 2013. Iran and six world powers reached a breakthrough agreement early on Sunday to curb Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for limited sanctions relief, in a first step towards resolving a dangerous decade-old standoff. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse (SWITZERLAND - Tags: POLITICS ENERGY) - RTX15QLU

Iran and the nuclear agreement: Trust but verify

Three senior former diplomats from the United States and Iran write that the interim agreement with Iran can lead to progress not only on the nuclear file but also in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

People clean the streets as the Lebanese army deploys on the streets of the Sunni Muslim Bab al-Tebbaneh neighbourhood in Tripoli, northern Lebanon December 4, 2013. The Lebanese government has told the army to take over security in the restive coastal city of Tripoli for six months, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Monday. Ten people were killed in weekend clashes between Tripoli's Alawite minority, which supports Syria's Alawite President Bashar al-Assad, and majority Sunni Muslims who back h

Regional violence threatens Lebanon's fragile stability

As suicide attacks and explosions increase in Beirut, Lebanon is being inexorably drawn deeper into the Syrian conflict.

Weapons are seen in the sand near Adra, east of Damascus, in this handout photograph distributed by Syria's national news agency SANA August 7, 2013. Sixty-two rebel fighters were killed in a Syrian army ambush at dawn on Wednesday near the town of Adra, east of Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group opposed to President Bashar al-Assad. The state news agency SANA did not give a death toll for the ambush but said the rebels were from the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front. It

Turkey recasts approach to armed groups in Syria

Intelligence reports of al-Qaeda threats against Turkey are causing concern.

Lebanon's Hezbollah members and relatives carry the coffin of commander Hassan al-Laqqis during his funeral in Baalbeck, in Lebanon's Bekaa valley December 4, 2013. Al-Laqqis, a Hezbollah commander who fought in Syria's civil war was shot dead outside his home in Lebanon on Wednesday in an attack which the militant Shi'ite group blamed on Israel. Israel denied any role in the killing of Hassan al-Laqqis, who was shot from close range by a silenced gun as he arrived home at around midnight in the Hadath dist

Laqis assassination reveals crack in Hezbollah’s ‘security fortress’

The Dec. 4 assassination of a leading Hezbollah figure in Beirut occurred when the organization was in a state of heightened vigilance.

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan delivers his speech during an international conference on the Arab awakening and peace in the Middle East in Istanbul September 7, 2012. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS RELIGION) - RTR37O1J

Turkish-Arab Cooperation Forum remains in limbo

Although not officially canceled, the fifth Turkish-Arab Cooperation Forum may not be held this year.

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY ANTONIO PAMPLIEGA
Syrian Turkmen rebels run across a street controlled by regime forces to dodge sniper fire in the Hanano district of the northern city of Aleppo on January 28, 2013. Members of Syria's Turkmen minority have joined forces with rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad's regime in a struggle they say is for democracy and revenge for years of oppression. AFP PHOTO/JM LOPEZ (Photo credit should read JM LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Al-Qaeda in Syria targets Turkmen minority

Syrian Turkmen feel Turkey has abandoned them.

An elderly Syrian Alawite man sleeps in a tent at the courtyard of Pirsultan Abdal Cemevi in Istanbul October 11, 2013. As Syria's conflict takes on an increasingly sectarian dimension, a growing number of those fleeing to Turkey are shunning the refugee camps on its southern border and venturing instead to its major cities, as far from the war as possible. Picture taken October 11, 2013. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: SOCIETY IMMIGRATION POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTX14L6V

Syrian refugees in Istanbul sent from pillar to post

Over 200,000 Syrian refugees, most of them without legal papers, struggle to find shelter and work in Istanbul as winter sets in.

Blood stains are seen on the ground after a suicide bombing at the Kurdish Internal Security Forces Center (Asayish) at the Suez Canal neighbourhood in Qamishli November 23, 2013. The al-Qaeda linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have claimed responsibility for the bombing which killed three people, including two members of the Asayish police force, and nine others wounded, activists said. Picture taken November 23, 2013. REUTERS/Massoud Mohammed (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTX15

ISIS exploits weak Iraqi, Syrian states

Historically targeting non-central parts of the countries in which it operates, al-Qaeda, in the form of ISIS, is taking advantage of prevailing instability in Syria and Iraq to deepen its roots.

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of parliament from his ruling AK Party (AKP) during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara November 26, 2013. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX15TO8

Iran nuclear accord requires secular 'reset' of Turkey's foreign policy

In the aftermath of Iran's nuclear accord, Turkey can only play an effective regional role if it adopts a secular foreign policy.

Lebanese commandos take part in a military parade to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Lebanon's independence in downtown Beirut November 22, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir (LEBANON - Tags: ANNIVERSARY POLITICS MILITARY) - RTX15OGS

Lebanese independence from 1943 pact to Baabda Declaration

In Lebanon’s 70th year as an independent republic, the series of treaties and agreements to overcome internal disputes can all contribute to a more comprehensive solution to the question of national unity.

$Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan addresses the media next to Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (R) at Esenboga Airport in Ankara November 21, 2013. A feud between Erdogan and an influential Islamic cleric, Fethullah Gulen, has spilled into the open months ahead of elections, highlighting fractures in the religiously conservative support base underpinning his decade in power. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS RELIGION) - RTX15NGG$

Iran deal may encourage more humble Turkish foreign policy

The nuclear agreement between the six world powers and Iran may be a wake-up call for Turkey to recast its own foreign policy after its failures in Syria.