Al-Rayyes began his career as a journalist, reporting on the Vietnam War in 1966 for An-Nahar and Al-Hayat newspapers, the North Yemen Civil War, the military coup in Greece in 1967, and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. He was also said to be the first Arab journalist to report on the Prague Spring and the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.[2]
In 1977, al-Rayyes moved to London, where he founded Al Manar newspaper, the first Arab newspaper to be published in Europe.[3] From 1979 to 1988, al-Rayyes wrote for the Paris-based Al Mustaqbal magazine.[1]
In addition to his newspaper reporting, al-Rayyes also wrote several dozen books, the best-known of which are his "Winds of Change" series. He also wrote Guerrillas for Palestine. In 1986, al-Rayyes founded a publishing house in London, named Al-Rayyes Books and Publishing. Upon the end of the Lebanese Civil War, he relocated it to Beirut. It published works by Arab authors including Mahmoud Darwish, Fawwaz Traboulsi, and May Menassa.[4]
Al-Rayyes died in Beirut in 2020 from COVID-19, at the age of 83.[2]