The Syrian regime has taken various ad hoc measures in the past two months to control the value of the Syrian pound (SYP) against the US dollar, all of them in vain. Changes of 5% or more in the exchange rate—up or down—have become near-daily occurrences, indicating the currency’s shaky position and the regime’s inability to contain its crisis. While the regime did manage to…

[Editor’s note: Last week, a former spokesman of the Syrian “Army of Islam” militia was arrested in Marseilles, France, on war crimes charges. The below article, first published in Arabic on 9 December, 2019, charts the bloody rise and multiple transformations of the group from its founding in late 2011 to the present day.] On 10 April, 2018, buses filled with displaced residents of the…

“Do you see how beautiful the moon looks?” I ask you while we’re on our way home at night, crossing between the last minibus stop and our house in Qudsaya Suburb. “You’re even more beautiful!” I rush to answer my own question before you do. Other times you don’t let me finish the question, finishing it yourself straight away, biting on your lower lip with…

Syrians in Lebanon have greeted the country’s uprising with a complex blend of joy, envy, melancholy, and fear, write Dara Foi’Elle and Joey Ayoub.

Notes on life without cash in Lebanon.

Al-Jumhuriya talks to veteran Lebanese journalist Michael Young about the parallels and distinctions between today’s mass protests in Lebanon and the 2005 “Cedar Revolution.”

Last Wednesday, the Syrian “Constitutional Committee” gathered for the first time to hold its inaugural meeting in Geneva. After an opening statement by UN Special Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen, two more addresses were made; the first by Assad regime representative Ahmad al-Kuzbari, and the second by Hadi al-Bahra, representing the opposition. The next three days saw further speeches by various members of the three…

A diverse and often divided family, the international left is on the rise today in response to economic failures and right-wing demagoguery. A new collection of 77 interviews captures the contemporary leftist zeitgeist, revealing its promises and weaknesses alike.

It’s never easy to be optimistic about Lebanon, but the uprising of the past week offers a real chance for lasting change—if the protest movement plays its cards well.

With your abduction and disappearance for more than six years now, I have experienced the worst that any man can experience. It has also been the most unusual of all the many crimes and brutal acts committed in our world. We were not—you and I, specifically—strangers to unusual harshness in our country, which offered some of the harshest and most unusual forms of life in…