Al-Monitor is an award-winning media outlet covering the Middle East, valued for its independence, diversity and analysis. It is read widely by US, international and Middle East decision makers at the ...

Founded in the 11th century by the Almoravids as a military settlement, Meknes became a capital under Sultan Moulay Ismaïl (1672–1727), the founder of the Alawite dynasty. The sultan turned it into a ...

Al-Monitor is an award-winning media outlet covering the Middle East, valued for its independence, diversity and analysis. It is read widely by US, international and Middle East decision makers at the ...

Syrian authorities said on Thursday that security forces seized 600,000 Captagon pills that were to be smuggled into Iraq, in a rare raid on the narcotics trade dominated by Iran-backed groups, as ...

If Russia’s true interest is maintaining access to the port, regime failure will complicate matters considerably, unless the regime retains the coastal Alawite region, in which Tartus lies.

The Biden administration’s foreign policy record in the Middle East has been lamentable. The faux pas began before Biden took ...

Featuring around 200 artifacts, manuscripts, jewelry pieces, photographs, and musical instruments, some of which have never ...

Hezbollah's next major conflict began in 2012, when it sent thousands of fighters to help Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad – a member of the Shia offshoot Alawite sect – crush a largely ...

Iran sees Mr Assad, a member of the heterodox Shia Alawite sect, as its closest Arab ally. Syria is also the main transit point for Iranian weapons shipments to the Shia group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Their presence complicated the conflict and helped make it overtly sectarian in nature, pitching the country's Sunni majority against President Bashar al-Assad's Shia Alawite sect. There was a ...

These rare objects will be complemented by previously never-before-seen works from Qatar Museums, MIA, and the forthcoming Lusail Museum, including an Alawite headdress decorated with golden ...