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Instagram Reels Has Arrived To The Middle East
Instagram’s long awaited short-form video-sharing feature, Instagram Reels, has finally started rolling out in the Middle East. During Instagram’s previous “House of Instagram” event, the company announced that Reels would be a brand-new way for content creators and businesses in the MENA region to create and discover short and entertaining videos. The announcement of Reels comes just days after Instagram released Instagram Music in the Middle East.
Reels allows users to take and edit multi-clip videos up to 30 seconds long, with the ability to add effects and other new tools dedicated to this feature. Once taken, users can share Reels with their followers (for private accounts) and potentially with the entire Instagram community (your account will need to be set to public).
If you have the latest version of Instagram installed on your smartphone, you should see the Reels icon in the bottom center of the app’s homepage.
“Self-expression and versatility are part of the creative DNA of the region’s Gen Z and millennial population. As one of the primary platforms for this group of creators, we have always sought to adapt our features to what they need. With Reels, they now have more leverage when it comes to creating and sharing short-form content. Reels provides our community with greater freedom and flexibility to innovate, experiment and elevate their content, and we cannot wait to discover a new generation of talent via the feature.” said Samer Jamal, strategic partner manager at Instagram MENA.
Also Read: How To Find & Cancel Pending Instagram Requests
Instagram isn’t the only company to explore this type of short-form content. Last September, YouTube announced a similar feature called “Shorts” which gives creators the ability to capture short and catchy videos straight from their smartphone.
News
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget
The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
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