Interviews

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‘A treasure house of Syria’s past’: Archaeologists, NGOs reckon with scale of cultural looting in post-IS Raqqa

August 16

Mosaics in the Raqqa Museum after Islamic State battle in August. Photo by Abdullah Ismail. Few insurgent groups in recent memory have made wanton destruction of cultu...

‘China has a lot to gain by supporting Assad in a post-war Syria’: A conversation with Stimson Center researcher Logan Pauley

August 13

For 60 years, successive Chinese governments have stood doggedly by an official policy of “nonintervention” in the internal affairs of other states. And yet an August...

Striking from the desert: Arms expert on how the Islamic State, in retreat, fuels its war effort

August 12

The Islamic State is now scattered across the deserts of Syria and Iraq. Driven back on all fronts, almost all of the territories the hardline group controlled at its height in 20...

As Syria’s proxies converge on Idlib, what’s next for Turkey’s northern state-within-a-state?

August 06

In Syria’s rural northern Aleppo province, children raised speaking Arabic and Kurdish are set to begin studying Turkish this fall. Meanwhile, local council offices display ...

Women, children face legal limbos and statelessness following collapse of Islamic State ‘caliphate’

August 01

Children in the Ain al-Issa camp in December 2017. Photo by Delil Souleiman/AFP. When the US-led international coalition launched its campaign against the Islamic State (IS) in 2...

Cyber attacks and surveillance in Assad’s Syria: ‘They can do whatever they want, they own the infrastructure’

July 26

Dlshad Othman speaks at the UN in 2012. Photo courtesy of Eric Bridiers/Creative Commons. Cybersecurity expert Dlshad Othman remembers a joke among Syrian activists after un...

‘The photos he left behind speak for themselves’: Remembering the work of Yarmouk photographer Niraz Saied

July 25

Two Yarmouk residents in 2015. Photo courtesy of Niraz Saied. During the days of the siege, young photographers and media activists Niraz Saied and Ahmad Abbasi combed the street...

‘They took the idea of a ceasefire and distorted it’: Opposition negotiator reflects on de-escalation after Daraa battle

July 23

Government buses gather in held Daraa in a photo from July 15. Photo courtesy of Nabaa Media. Yahya al-Aridi had his first foray into negotiations in the early 90s, when he...

Dozens of families ‘trapped’ in no-man’s land along Jordan border following government advances in Daraa

July 19

Displaced Syrians place tents near the Jordanian border on Wednesday. Photo courtesy of Abu Saeed. In a barren patch of land between Syria’s southwestern Daraa pr...

Kurdish political body gains increased independence in opposition’s negotiating committee despite rankling over Afrin operation

July 17

Members of the Syrian High Negotiations Committee (HNC) in Riyadh in June. Photo courtesy of HNC. In late June, the Syrian opposition’s main negotiating body, the High Nego...

US Envoy to Syria: ‘No change in troop presence in Syria’ whether Biden or Trump wins

UN Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria Kevin Kennedy: Closing Bab al-Salameh ‘endangers the lives of children’

Ambassador Frederic Hof: ‘I would be very surprised if I were to see in a Biden administration the resurrection of the Obama approach to Syria’

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