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June 18, 2026

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Hassan Akkad speaks about fleeing Syria in 2015 and his work as a filmmaker at a BAFTA event, Sept. 2023.

Culture

In Syria, detention of Hassan Akkad raises alarm about free expression under Sharaa

Akkad, a British-Syrian filmmaker, was detained Wednesday night after his campaign questioning the whereabouts of funds allegedly pledged for relief, reconstruction and community initiatives across Syria.

Mazloum Abdi (Kobani), commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), speaks with AFP during an interview in the countryside outside the northwestern Syrian city of Hasakah, in the province of the same name, on January 24, 2019. - Any deal between Syria's Kurds and the Damascus regime should respect the "special status" of Kurdish-led forces who fought the Islamic State (IS) group, Kobani said. The SDF control around a third of Syria after expelling jihadists from a large northeastern swathe of t

Syrian Kurd commander Kobane kicks off European tour amid scrutiny from Damascus

Commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces Mazlum Kobane is on a European tour and will likely meet French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in Paris.

Latest News

Analysis

Why Trump’s push for Syria to confront Hezbollah is an unlikely bid

Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa is welcomed by Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides in Nicosia on April 24, 2026, on the sidelines of a European summit.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

'Let Syria take care of Hezbollah': Trump criticizes Israel, leans on Sharaa to help in Lebanon

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, FRANCE - JUNE 16: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on the sidelines of the G7 summit, on June 16, 2026 in Evian-les-Bains, France. Leaders from the Group of 7 (G7) countries convened in Evian, France, near the Swiss border, for their annual summit to discuss challenges to peace and security for Ukraine and Europe, the situation in the Middle East, and other geopolitical issues. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Get

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

Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra members gesture while posing on a tank on Al-Khazan frontline of Khan Sheikhoun, northern Idlib province May 17, 2014. REUTERS/Hamid Khatib (SYRIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST MILITARY POLITICS CONFLICT) - RTR3PM9N

Why is Jabhat al-Nusra no longer useful to Turkey?

The Turkish government may be waking up to its failed Syria policies.

A woman pushes a baby's stroller loaded with belongings recovered from her home in the Wadi Al-Sayeh district at the al-Khalidiyeh area in Homs May 14, 2014. The fall of Syria's third largest city to government forces is a major blow to the opposition and a boost for Assad, weeks before his likely re-election. Picture taken May 14, 2014. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki (SYRIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTR3PD8B

Will Homs truce be repeated in Aleppo?

Hezbollah sources indicate that efforts are underway, including interventions by Iranian and Turkish authorities, to repeat the truce reached in Homs last month in Aleppo.

Syrian Kurds continue to blame Turkey for backing ISIS militants

In a report from northeast Syria, Syrian Kurds, locked in a bloody battle with the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), also fear a potential clash with Syrian government forces.

Mahamet, a 17-year-old Syrian boy from Azaz, waits for customers in front of the jewellery shop where he works as a translator in Kilis on the Turkish-Syrian border March 18, 2014. The busy market district of Kilis in southeast Turkey is full of Syrian refugee children, repairing household goods, serving baklava and selling jewellery to become the main breadwinner of their families because their parents struggle to find jobs. The civil war in neighbouring Syria has killed more than 140,000 people and driven

Refugees help spark Turkish trade with Syria

Despite the war, Turkish-Syrian trade is growing in several sectors, fueled in part by the influx of Syrian refugees.

A Syrian refugee points at his make-shift home in Tfail village in Bekaa Valley after fleeing the violence in Syria, April 22, 2014. The only accessible road to the Lebanese border village of Tfail, cut off by Syrian regime troops as part of the regime's offensive to root out rebels in the Qalamoun region, was reopened on Tuesday by the Lebanese Army. REUTERS/Ahmad Shalha (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3M9R6

Displaced Syrians target of new Lebanon law

A recent law to revoke the displaced status of Syrian refugees if they return to Syria was meant to prevent Syrians from voting in the June 3 elections.

Veiled women sit as they chat in a garden in the northern province of Raqqa March 31, 2014. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has imposed sweeping restrictions on personal freedoms in the northern province of Raqqa. Among the restrictions, Women must wear the niqab, or full face veil, in public or face unspecified punishments "in accordance with sharia", or Islamic law. REUTERS/Stringer (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT RELIGION SOCIETY) - RTR3JCO4

European women find appeal in Syrian jihad

Radical European Muslim women are traveling to Syria to marry jihadist fighters and provide support.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal (L) and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shake hands as they meet in Moscow February 27, 2007. Meshaal praised Russia's efforts to end a Western aid embargo on the Palestinian administration during a visit to Moscow intended to win support for a new unity government. REUTERS/Pool (RUSSIA) - RTR1MVPV

Hamas sees Russia visit as means to end regional isolation

Hamas political bureau leader Khaled Meshaal will visit Moscow in the coming weeks, where he is expected to ask Russia to help restore Hamas' ties with Iran and to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to soften his opposition to the Islamist movement.

Soldiers loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad gesture from their tank, as they pass Mar Bacchus Sarkis monastery, in Maloula village, northeast of Damascus, after taking control of the village from rebel fighters April 14, 2014. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA - Tags: MILITARY POLITICS CONFLICT CIVIL UNREST TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR3L92W

Syria confident of Russian military support

In an interview with Al-Monitor in Damascus, a senior Syrian official said the Syrian war would end like the Algerian one, with the state defeating the terrorists and staying in power.

A fishmonger cleans fish at a wet market in Latakia city May 25, 2014. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA - Tags: FOOD BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT) - RTR3QRGH

Syrian coast attracts Aleppans displaced by war

Thousands of mostly Sunnis from Aleppo fleeing the violence in their city have found work, and little discrimination, on the Alawite-dominated Syrian coast.

Displaced young Syrians find home in Gaziantep cafe

A hip cafe in Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, has become a refuge for young, educated Syrian refugees.

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman attends a meeting with the business community in Uganda's capital Kampala, September 10, 2009. Lieberman, accompanied by business and military delegation, is on an official African visit to Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, and Nigeria. REUTERS/James Akena (UGANDA POLITICS BUSINESS) - RTR27O1U

Liberman outlines vision for 'regional arrangement' with Arab states

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman offers a plan for open contacts with "moderate" Arab states to deal with the threat from Iran and in pursuit of an agreement with the Palestinians.

A woman walks past election posters of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad along a street in Damascus June 2, 2014. Buoyed by a sequence of victories over the past year, won in large part through Iran and Hezbollah, its Lebanese paramilitary proxy, Assad will be elected president this week for a third seven-year term, symbolically contested by selected opponents playing walk-on roles to pad out the main drama. To match Insight SYRIA-ELECTION/ASSAD REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS

Syrian official: 'West will deal with us as a fait accompli'

With presidential elections in Syria scheduled for June 3, a Syrian official says, "Turkey will suffer greatly from its involvement against us."