new video loaded: How Syria’s President Transformed His Image Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara’s meeting with President Trump in Washington signifies a new turn for al-Shara, a former Islamist rebel leader who was once designated by the United States as a terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head. Our reporter Christina Goldbaum describes the … Read more
Syrian government forces entered the majority Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday (July 15, 2025), the Interior Ministry said, aiming to end clashes with Bedouin tribes that have killed nearly 100 people. The southern city had been under the control of armed factions from the Druze minority, whose religious leaders said they had approved the … Read more
US President Donald Trump will sign an order lifting sanctions on Syria, the White House announced on Monday. Sanctions will still apply to individuals tied to former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, human rights abusers, drug traffickers, people linked to chemical weapons activities, the Islamic State and ISIS affiliates and proxies for Iran. President Donald Trump … Read more
After one of the most brutal wars of this century, a new flag flies across Syria: the emblem of the rebels who toppled the dictator Bashar al-Assad. Ben Hubbard, The New York Times’s Istanbul bureau chief, describes what our journalists learned as they drove across Syria, meeting people in towns and cities along the way … Read more
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan meets with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Istanbul, Turkey on May 24, 2025. Photo: Murat Cetinmuhurdar/PPO via Reuters Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was holding talks with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Istanbul on Saturday (May 24, 2025), news channel CNN Turk and state media said, broadcasting video of the two leaders … Read more
When President Donald Trump shook hands with Syria‘s new leader and promised to lift sanctions on his country at the Saudi royal palace last week, it was a vivid demonstration of how the president’s Middle East diplomacy has all but sidelined Israel. “Tough guy, very strong past,” Trump said about President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who once … Read more
A delegation of Syrian Druse made a rare trip to Israel this week and visited a shrine revered by the faith as Israel seeks to extend its influence inside Syria after the fall of the dictator Bashar al-Assad. Both Israel and Syria have sizable communities of Druse — an Arabic-speaking religious minority scattered across the … Read more
Hundreds of civilians have sought refuge at a Russian air base on Syria’s coast, satellite imagery reveals, as thousands have fled violent unrest that the United Nations said on Tuesday appeared to have been driven by sectarianism. Footage and satellite images reviewed and verified by The New York Times indicated that civilians were sheltering in … Read more
In the Syrian capital, Damascus, the country’s new leader has hosted a national unity conference and welcomed foreign dignitaries as crowds gather at cafes, speaking out freely for the first time in decades. But 400 miles away in northeastern Syria, a region beyond the control of the Damascus government, battles that have been going on … Read more
President Trump’s sweeping executive order to halt foreign aid threatens to freeze a U.S. program supporting security forces inside a notorious camp in the Syrian desert that holds tens of thousands of Islamic State members and their families, Syrian and U.S. officials said. The order has also wreaked havoc on another U.S. organization in Syria … Read more