The Levant Files

by Dr. Nikolaos Stelgias TLF Chief Editor, Fellow Research in the Nicosia University Ten days after Israeli jets struck the Abu al-Duhur airbase in Idlib, the sharpest aftershocks are being felt not in Damascus but in Washington, where the Trump administration remains visibly split over Israel's forward-leaning regional posture. The fault line runs through Tom Barrack, US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria and Iraq. Barrack called the August 18 strike "unnecessary" and said Ankara had not been told about it, meaning Turkey watched aircraft heading north toward its territory and could reasonably have prepared its own military response. He also suggested the operation may have been intended to provoke Ankara and could relate to political calculations ahead of Israel's elections — stressing this was one possible theory, not an intelligence-based conclusion. He then described the Golan as still occupied in breach of UN resolutions, before walking that back a...

FC Barcelona has cancelled a youth training camp it had planned to stage in the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus next month, and the head of the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) says his federation's interventions brought the plan down. The listing, advertised on the club's website as the "Lefkosa Camp" and scheduled for 7–11 and 16–20 September at Near East University, was taken down on Thursday, along with references on the club's events page and location map. What drew the sharpest reaction in Nicosia was the location line itself: "Lefkosa, Northern Cyprus." CFA chairman Haris Loizides told the Cyprus News Agency that the association moved the moment it learned of the plan, working through official channels and behind-the-scenes diplomacy. He wrote to Spanish federation president Rafael Louzan — copying UEFA and the club — asking Barcelona either to relocate the camp to territory controlled by the Republic or drop it altogether. Loizides said the out...

Greece has been confronted with two new femicides within just four days, once again exposing the disturbing distance between government declarations about combating gender-based violence and the reality confronting women threatened by partners and former partners. On August 26, a 44-year-old woman was fatally stabbed in her home in Dialambi, Rodopi. Police arrested her 53-year-old husband on suspicion of intentional homicide, domestic violence and weapons offences. Greek police confirmed that the same man had been arrested in 2022 following a domestic-threat complaint involving the victim.  But subsequent reporting makes the case considerably more alarming. Ta Nea, citing Mega, reported that five complaints involving insults, threats and domestic violence had been made against the man. The couple were separated, and the woman was reportedly preparing to file for divorce. Some of the couple’s children had allegedly also signed complaints concerning their father’s behaviour.  Fo...

Syria’s post-Assad transition has entered a potentially decisive phase, with the dissolution of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the integration of its fighters into the national military and new recognition of Kurdish linguistic rights. Yet prominent Syrian human-rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni warns that political and military reunification will mean little unless the emerging state also establishes an independent system of justice. According to The Syrian Observer, citing +963, SDF Commander-in-Chief Mazloum Abdi announced in Damascus that the organisation would cease operating as an independent military force, while the Autonomous Administration would also be wound down. Former SDF personnel are to be absorbed into Syria’s armed forces under an agreement with President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The arrangement also contains an important cultural component. Kurdish is set to receive official recognition alongside Arabic in Kurdish-majority areas, with plans for optional Kurdish-language and ...

Fenerbahçe are back among European football’s elite after an 18-year absence, securing their place in the UEFA Champions League league phase with a dramatic 2-1 victory over Olympique Lyonnais in France on Wednesday night. The Istanbul giants completed a 3-2 aggregate triumph in the Champions League play-offs, having been held to a 1-1 draw by Lyon in the first leg in Istanbul. Their victory at the Groupama Stadium ended one of the longest and most frustrating chapters in the club’s recent history, taking Fenerbahçe back to the main stage of the Champions League for the first time since the 2008-09 season. Fenerbahçe travelled to Lyon knowing they needed a result against a side that had historically proved difficult for them in European competition. Instead of adopting a cautious approach, the Turkish side produced an impressive first-half performance and struck twice within four minutes. Former Fenerbahçe striker Vedat Muriqi, who returned to the club this summer, opened the scoring i...

The Iranian rial has plunged to a fresh historic low, crossing 2 million rials to one US dollar on the free market, after Washington rolled out its most severe sanctions package yet against Tehran, according to Al Jazeera . The currency's slide is the latest blow to an economy already worn down by decades of sanctions tied to Iran's nuclear program, compounded by the US-Israel war that began on February 28, 2026. Together, these pressures have battered a nation of roughly 92 million people, according to the report. To illustrate the toll on ordinary households, Al Jazeera compared prices for staple goods in Tehran before the war with current costs. The findings are stark: 2 million rials once bought about 4kg of tomatoes, half a kilo of chicken, and nearly a liter of cooking oil. Today, that same sum covers only about half those quantities. Tomato prices have risen 71 percent, chicken 74 percent, and cooking oil a striking 177 percent, the outlet reported. Medicine has been hit...

Kurdish trade officials say they have not yet been ordered to halt any imports from Iran, even as Washington rolls out its most sweeping sanctions campaign against Tehran to date. Nawzad Sheikh Kamil, director general of trade at the Kurdistan Region's Ministry of Trade and Industry, told Rudaw late Tuesday that the new US measures "have not yet entered the implementation phase," and that the coming days would show their real impact on the Region. His comments come two days after the US Treasury Department unveiled "Operation Economic Outcast," an escalation Secretary Scott Bessent had teased for over a week as an "economic D-Day." The campaign sanctioned nearly 60 entities, individuals and vessels, and expanded secondary-sanctions exposure to five sectors Washington says sustain Iran's economy: digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping. Bessent said the goal is to "sever every economic lifeline" until "Tehran stands al...

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish-led militia that spearheaded the fight against the Islamic State group and once controlled roughly a quarter of Syrian territory, announced its formal dissolution on Tuesday, closing a decade-long chapter of de facto Kurdish autonomy in the country's northeast. Speaking at a televised press conference from the presidential palace in Damascus, SDF commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi declared "the end of the mission of the Syrian Democratic Forces" and its "dissolution as an independent military force." He said the announcement followed the completion of the integration of SDF fighters into brigades of the Syrian national army. Abdi also announced the dissolution of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and its affiliated civilian institutions, which have now been folded into the Syrian state. "Today we stand at a historic moment in which we turn an important page in Syria's history,...

A recent high-profile arrest in the internationally unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus ("TRNC") has brought to light a sophisticated transnational crime network, confirming suspicions of a dark operational axis spanning Greece, Turkish-controlled Cyprus, and Turkey. The nexus of this deadly network revolves around the highly lucrative, illicit tobacco trade—a booming black-market industry that recently fueled an unprecedented war within the Greek Mafia.   The major turning point in unraveling this violent saga occurred with the apprehension of 43-year-old Russian national Alexey Shokpa in the town of Esentepe, located within the so-called TRNC. According to local reports, Shokpa, who was actively sought by Interpol, is the prime suspect in the brutal assassination of Greek crime boss Vangelis Zambounis. Authorities initially detained Shokpa for severe immigration and military zone violations. The suspect had reportedly resided in the TRNC illegally for 389 days,...