This is Beirut

New Syria leader holds talks with Jordan king

This is Beirut, 26/02 13:25 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Damascus Jordan Syria King Abdullah II Ahmed al-Sharaa

Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa met Jordan's King Abdullah II in Amman on Wednesday on his third foreign visit since ousting Bashar al-Assad. King Abdullah II greeted Sharaa at Amman's Marka airport, the royal court said in a statement. The two leaders then headed to Raghadan Palace for their first talks since Sharaa took power. It is ...

Syria: Major Israeli Attack in the South of Damascus, At Least Two Killed

This is Beirut, 26/02 00:15 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Syria Israel

The Israeli army said it carried out air strikes targeting military sites containing weapons in southern Syria on Tuesday, just days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for demilitarising the area. At least two people were killed by a strike on one of the sites, the headquarters of a military unit southwest of Damascus, a war monitor ...

Syria National Conference Lays Out Post-Assad Priorities

This is Beirut, 25/02 20:04 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Damascus Syria Ahmad al-Sharaa

Syria's national dialogue conference, held Tuesday in Damascus, called for transitional justice, freedom and a state monopoly on arms to be among the cornerstones of the country's reconstruction after Bashar al-Assad's overthrow. Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, in a speech earlier to the hundreds of attendees, said the country was ...

Patriarch Rai Navigating the Delicate Situation in Bkerke

Saad Kiwan, 24/02 15:40 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Bechara Rai Hezbollah Nasrallah Sfeir Patriarch Bkerke Syria

It has been 14 years since Patriarch Bechara Rai assumed the seat of the Maronite Patriarchate, as he was elected on March 15, 2011 – shortly after the popular uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s bloody regime erupted in Syria. Rai succeeded Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, who had resigned that same year, a month before Rai’s election. Sfeir had ...

Syria to Hold National Dialogue Conference Starting Monday

This is Beirut, 23/02 19:45 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Syria

Syria will hold a two-day national dialogue conference in the coming week, a member of the organizing committee told AFP on Sunday, months after an Islamist-led coalition, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted Bashar al-Assad. The conference "will begin Monday afternoon and continue Tuesday", said Hind Kabawat, one of seven organizers preparing ...

Syrian Suspect in Berlin Stabbing Wanted 'to Kill Jews'

This is Beirut, 22/02 14:40 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Syria Germany Stabbing Attack

A Syrian man arrested after a stabbing attack at Berlin's Holocaust memorial that wounded a Spanish man had been harboring a "plan to kill Jews", police and prosecutors said Saturday. The 19-year-old arrested Friday with blood stains on his hands was carrying a copy of the Koran and a prayer rug, and initial investigations suggested ...

Syrian Jews Pray Once Again in Damascus Synagogue

This is Beirut, 21/02 18:20 - Reading : less than a minute

Damascus Syria Jews

Syrian-American Rabbi Yusuf Hamra led a prayer in Damascus, marking a rare gathering for Syria's Jewish community.

What Should America Do About Syria?

David Hale , 21/02 18:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Syria USA America Gaza Lebanon

While Lebanese are focused intently on developments in Syria, the topic is absent in Washington. Yet what is happening there is one of the landmark geo-strategic developments of the Middle East of our times, the demise of a long-standing problematic regime for America and its friends and part and parcel of the reversal of fortunes of a major ...

UN Says Syria Economic Recovery could take Half a Century

This is Beirut, 21/02 12:25 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

United Nations Syria Economy

Syria would need more than 50 years to get back to its economic level before its devastating civil war at current growth rates, the United Nations said Thursday. "Fourteen years of conflict in Syria have undone nearly four decades of economic, social, and human capital progress," the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said. "At current growth ...

Israel Says Strikes Lebanon-Syria Border Crossings Used by Hezbollah

This is Beirut, 21/02 08:55 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Hezbollah Israel Syria Border

Israel said Friday it struck crossings on the Lebanon-Syria border used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons, with a Syria war monitor reporting an unspecified number of people wounded in the attack. The Israeli military said its air forces "struck crossing points in the area of the Lebanon-Syria border" used by Hezbollah "in attempts to smuggle ...

Lebanon-Syria: Smuggling Thrives on Fuel

Liliane Mokbel, 20/02 21:18 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Lebanon Trafficking Syria

The illegal trafficking of goods between Lebanon and Syria has been a longstanding issue. Despite the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, little progress has been made, even with the United Kingdom’s assistance to Lebanon in securing its borders, notably through the construction of surveillance towers along the northern and eastern ...

From Revolution to Reconstruction: Homs Residents Return to Their City

This is Beirut, 18/02 15:50 - Reading : less than a minute

Homs Syria War Bashar al-Assad

Once dubbed the capital of the revolution against Bashar al-Assad, Homs saw some of the fiercest fighting in Syria's civil war. Now, displaced people are returning to their neighborhoods, only to find them in ruins.