Panorama of Week: Al-Shara’s U.S. visit raises questions over Syria’s future

Arab newspapers published over the past week discussed Ahmad al-Shara’s visit to Washington, the Gaza agreement, and developments in Lebanon and Sudan.

Al-Shara’s Visit to the White House: A Turning Point in Washington–Damascus Relations

Starting with Syria, Al-Arab newspaper reported that the visit of Transitional Prime Minister Ahmad al-Shara to the White House represents a turning point in the trajectory of relations between Damascus and Washington. Observers described it as “possibly a prelude to a security agreement with Israel,” but the key question remains: What price will Syrians have to pay?

The paper added that “President al-Shara is expected to sign during his visit to the White House an agreement for Syria’s accession to the international coalition to combat the Islamic State group.”

Al-Arab quoted a U.S. State Department spokesperson saying that President Donald Trump’s administration supports lifting sanctions by amending the National Defense Authorization Act, adding that Washington “welcomes any Arab investment or participation in Syria that contributes to peace and prosperity” — an indirect reference to Saudi Arabia’s plans to invest in Syria.

Trump’s ‘Day After’ Plan in Gaza: Challenges and Risks

Meanwhile, Asharq Al-Awsat discussed the deadlock in the second phase of Trump’s plan to end Israel’s war on Gaza, explaining that the wave of high-level U.S. visits to Tel Aviv failed to achieve progress following the relative success of the first phase, which included a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange.

The newspaper noted that the plan faces broad Palestinian and Arab rejection for three main reasons:

1. It entrenches the separation between Gaza and the West Bank.

2. It imposes foreign trusteeship over the Gaza Strip.

3. It ignores the political dimension of the conflict by reducing it to humanitarian and economic issues.

It further noted that Israel seeks to apply the West Bank model to Gaza without involving the Palestinian Authority — a move that deepens division and provides new cover for the occupation.

The paper concluded that ignoring Palestinians’ political rights and their right to self-determination will keep the region hostage to instability and could entrench a single apartheid-like state instead of the two-state solution.

Is the Next Israeli War on Lebanon Inevitable?

The online newspaper Al-Modon focused on the growing likelihood of a new Israeli war against Lebanon, given Hezbollah’s insistence on keeping its weapons and rebuilding its arsenal of rockets and drones. It explained that the United States and Israel view the Lebanese government as incapable of enforcing its own decisions, prompting Washington to pressure Beirut toward negotiations with Tel Aviv as a “last chance.”

The paper argued that Lebanon faces a dual crisis: a paralyzed state and a party confronting an existential dilemma. It concluded that maintaining the current situation makes an upcoming war almost inevitable.

Sudan: The Assassination of Human Humanity

Asharq Al-Awsat also drew a comparative analysis between the war in Gaza and the civil war in Sudan, highlighting their common denominator — what it described as “the assassination of human humanity,” despite the differing causes and actors in each conflict.

The paper pointed out that global and media attention recently shifted from Israel’s war on Gaza to Sudan’s internal conflict but stressed that both wars exemplify human atrocities — killing, starvation, and displacement.

It further explored the underlying motives behind wars, arguing that “greed and the lust for power and wealth” are among the main causes, alongside inflated egos among some local leaders and “foreign interference” exploiting conflicts for its own interests.

The newspaper concluded that the humanitarian tragedies in Sudan and Gaza go beyond statistics, exposing a profound moral crisis in the modern world — where crimes against civilians are committed with impunity, whether by an occupier in Gaza or by Sudanese hands against their own people.

a.k

ANHA