For more than a decade, waste from the Israeli Occupation has flowed into various parts of the West Bank, while a large market for collecting, dismantling, and extracting metals from electronic waste has taken shape in the southern Hebron area.

After decades of political and security tensions that severely constrained economic integration, Damascus and Beirut are now seeking to recast their relationship around mutual interests and greater parity.

Rising regional tensions are driving interest in competing and potentially complementary rail corridors, especially Saudi Arabia’s Hejaz–Istanbul route and Iraq’s Development Road, with Iraq’s project hinging on stability and geopolitical conditions.

At a moment of deep regional uncertainty, where lines of war intersect with the maps of energy and trade, Syria finds itself at a new crossroads shaped not only by internal pressures but by fast-moving geopolitical shifts reshaping the Middle East.

Official statistics in Iraq show that the private sector imports around $8 billion worth of gold and precious stones from the UAE each year, raising questions about why such huge quantities are being brought in and who is behind these shipments.