News in brief
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced on Sunday that they had seized a foreign-flagged vessel accused of transporting 350,000 liters of smuggled fuel, according to state media. The ship, sailing under the flag of Eswatini, was intercepted and escorted to the port of Bushehr, in southwestern Iran. State......
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and senior government and defense officials toured southern Syria on Wednesday amid ongoing reports of potential security agreement negotiations with Damascus. The delegation also included Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, IDF......
Belgium is restructuring its diplomatic network, closing eight missions globally while opening five new ones and strengthening around 20 existing posts, in a bid to make its foreign representation “broader, more resilient and future-oriented,” Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot announced Friday. The......
In the suburbs of Damascus, frustration is mounting among residents following the Syrian government’s decision to sharply raise electricity prices, nearly a year after the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad. For Ghassan Aama, a blacksmith, the new tariffs are unbearable. “We were shocked......
German authorities announced on Sunday the arrest of a 22-year-old Syrian man in Berlin on suspicion of preparing a jihadist-inspired terrorist attack, amid rising security concerns across the country. The suspect was detained on Saturday in the Neukölln district of the German capital, according......
Berlin (AFP) – German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephull traveled to Syria on Thursday, marking the first official visit by a German top diplomat since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime last December. “With the fall of Assad’s dictatorship,......
Syrian President Ahmad al-Chareh will travel to Moscow on Wednesday, where he is expected to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, according to a government official and a Foreign Ministry source who spoke to AFP. It will be al-Chareh’s first visit to Russia since the ouster of former......
The head of the Kurds in Syria, Mazloum Abdi, announced to AFP that a “framework agreement” has been reached with the central government in Damascus regarding the integration of Kurdish troops into Syrian security forces. “We have reached a principle agreement on the mechanism......
Sonia Mejri, a 36-year-old French woman who returned from Syria, will become the first French national to stand trial for genocide. She is accused of enslaving a 16-year-old Yazidi girl during her stay in Syria in the spring of 2015, while living under the control of the Islamic State group (IS). The......
Calm has returned to the predominantly Christian region of Wadi el-Nasara, west of Homs, following a deadly shooting that sparked public unrest. On Wednesday evening, two young Syrian Christians were shot by armed and masked men in the village of Annaz, prompting protests across the area. Residents blocked......
Syrian president Ahmad al-Charaa warned on Tuesday that the Middle East could face renewed instability if his transitional government and Israel fail to reach a security agreement. Speaking in New York, he stressed that a lasting accord was essential not only for Syria and Israel but also for neighboring......
Syrian authorities on Sunday denied responsibility for a deadly bombing that struck a village in northern Syria the previous day, instead accusing the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) of carrying out the attack. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Saturday that seven......
Saudi Arabia has stepped up its efforts to expand its influence in Syria by pledging significant financial and humanitarian support. In July, Riyadh announced $6.4 billion in investments aimed at rehabilitating the country’s war-ravaged infrastructure, along with commitments to rebuild schools......
