Alex is a Beirut-based writer, translator, and managing editor of Al-Jumhuriya English. His first book, 'Vintage Humour: The Islamic Wine Poetry of Abu Nuwas', is due to be published by C. Hurst & Co. in November 2017. He tweets @alexjrowell.
Syria’s most powerful jihadists have neither agreed to nor impeded the creation by Turkey and Russia of an “extremist”-free buffer zone in Idlib Province. For now, all actors seem content to leave the matter at that.
The disappearance and possible murder of the Saudi Arabian writer has struck such a nerve because, for a change, Westerners are able to see themselves in the victim’s shoes.
Following the collapse of Jaysh al-Islam’s rule in Douma, Yassin al-Haj Saleh traveled to Turkey to seek answers from the city’s displaced residents about his wife, Samira, and three other activists abducted with her there in 2013.
With the return of mass peaceful Friday demonstrations in Syria, disputes have emerged regarding the tradition of giving each protest a name, with complaints that armed factions and foreign powers are trying to impose their agendas on civilian activists on the ground.
The Israeli strikes that led to the Syrian regime downing a Russian plane Monday night were only the latest in over 200 carried out since 2017; a relentless campaign that has nonetheless done nothing to imperil Assad’s grip on the country.
A new biography lays bare the extremist ideology that drives Benjamin Netanyahu, an early champion of the demagoguery that has now brought us his old friend, Donald Trump.
Friday’s summit in Tehran brings together the Iranian, Russian, and Turkish presidents to settle Idlib’s fate—and declare their tripartite tutelage over the country.
The State Department’s new Representative for Syria Engagement, James Jeffrey, co-authored a paper last month outlining his vision for US Syria policy. The fall of Idlib Province to the regime and its allies would leave his proposals dead in the water.
By releasing the names of thousands of detainees perished in its custody, the Assad regime may believe it can turn the page on the issue of the "disappeared" once and for all. International law, however, demands accountability, a legal expert on impunity tells Al-Jumhuriya in a wide-ranging interview.
The Assad regime has signaled it may soon begin a large military offensive in Idlib, the last province remaining in opposition hands—an offensive likely to have devastating humanitarian and political consequences for Syria, its neighbors, and even Europe.
Despite the enormous professional and personal price she paid for it—including arrest by Assad’s infamous security agencies—the celebrated 49-year-old actress never wavered in her support for Syria’s revolutionaries.
While generally well-intentioned, the concept of solidarity involves an unequal power relationship between those offering and receiving it. A preferable state of affairs would be partnership, placing Western activists and their counterparts elsewhere on equal footing.
