Atia Abu Salem, a Syrian refugee in Jordan arrested on his way to a pro-Gaza demonstration this month, is facing deportation. The families of “many Syrians” among the more than 1,500 people detained amid recent protests are keeping quiet, afraid of “escalation.”
Syrians in Zaatari, the world’s largest Syrian refugee camp, are struggling to make ends meet this Ramadan after the World Food Program cut their food assistance by about a third last year due to funding shortfalls.
Communities and local armed groups in Syria’s southern Suwayda and Daraa provinces are taking the fight against drug traffickers and smugglers into their own hands. With Damascus and Hezbollah profiting from the trade, they face an uphill battle.
In Syria’s southern Suwayda province, suspected Jordanian airstrikes hunt drug traffickers and kill civilians. Regime-linked gangs operate with impunity and smugglers ferry drugs over the border. Local armed groups fight back. How did we get here?
Escalating Jordanian military operations along—and across—its northern border with Syria signal a retreat from Amman’s “soft diplomacy” policy towards Damascus, accompanied by a growing sense of Iranian efforts to spread chaos within the country’s territory.
France’s international arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad for complicity in crimes against humanity marks a historic first. What does it mean in practice, and what are its implications for seemingly unstoppable regional normalization?
Damascus continues to outwardly ignore Suwayda’s uprising—the longest, most organized and widespread protests in the southern province’s recent history—while demonstrators believe their movement can hold strong.
Starting in August, 120,000 Syrians living in Jordan’s refugee camps will lose one third of their World Food Program assistance, the latest in a series of aid cuts amid an “unprecedented funding crisis.”
Once a traditional hobby practiced by a few hunters, falcon trapping is now a booming business in Syria. After 12 years of war and economic crisis, the trade is more popular than ever, and hunters are willing to take growing risks to catch the birds.
Jordan’s initiative for reciprocal engagement with Damascus to resolve the Syrian crisis could be a turning point in the two countries’ relations, which reached a breaking point after the Syrian revolution broke out in 2011.
