Samar El-Kadi, 2024-12-17 18:20 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Sweida Syria Druze
Like everywhere else in Syria, the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s totalitarian regime was acclaimed with joy and celebrations in the predominantly Druze southern province of Sweida. While they have historically been close to the regime, the esoteric minority Druze community, making up some 3 to 4% of Syria’s ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-17 15:30 - Reading : 6 minute(s)
Damascus European Union United Nations United States Syria Iran
The United Nations humanitarian chief said Tuesday that he was "encouraged" after meetings in Damascus with Syria's new leaders, saying there was a "basis for ambitious scaling-up of vital humanitarian support", as Western diplomatic missions prepare to return to Damascus. "Moment of cautious hope in Syria," Tom ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-17 09:10 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Damascus European Union Turkey United Nations USA Syria
Syria's rebel factions will be "disbanded," the head of the group that led the ouster of Bashar al-Assad has pledged, as the former president denounced the country's new rulers as "terrorists". Assad fled Syria on December 8, as rebels led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured the capital Damascus, ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-16 22:25 - Reading : less than a minute
The President of the Economic Organizations and former minister, Mohammad Choucair, has called for a reconsideration of the 1991 Treaty of Fraternity, Cooperation and Coordination signed between Lebanon and Syria. This appeal was made in two letters he addressed to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati. ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-16 21:45 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Saydnaya Prison Syria Turkey AFAD
A large team of Turkish rescuers began searching Syria's infamous Saydnaya prison near Damascus Monday, trying to check for any hidden underground cells, its director said. Located just north of the Syrian capital, the prison has become a symbol of the rights abuses of the Assad clan, especially since the Syrian civil war erupted in ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-16 21:40 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
United Kingdom Syria Hayat Tahrir al-Sham David Lammy
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on Monday that the UK has sent senior officials to meet with Syria's new leadership. It follows the fall earlier this month of the Assad regime to Islamist-led rebels, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has its roots in Al-Qaeda. HTS has renounced jihadism but remains proscribed as a terrorist ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-16 20:40 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Two Palestinian officials told AFP on Monday that Israel, via Russian mediators, was seeking to locate in Syria the remains of famous Israeli spy Eli Cohen and missing soldiers. Israel for years has been trying to find and repatriate the body of Cohen, and in 2021 a war monitor said Russian forces had been searching the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-16 19:35 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Syria Bashar al-Assad Syrian army
When Syria's new government put out a call on social media for soldiers and police to lay down their arms and register with the authorities, Kamal Merhej was happy to oblige. "I don't like the army, I want to get back on track with my life without anyone to give me orders," the 28-year-old told AFP. He spent nine years in the army, posted to the ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-16 18:20 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Lebanon Economy Drugs Pharmacists Syria
The President of the Pharmacists’ Syndicate, Joe Salloum, stated that the fall of the Syrian regime would put an end to the smuggling of medications, noting that subsidized medicines have been smuggled across border points. "With the regime's fall, the borders will be controlled, and the process of drug smuggling in both directions will come ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-16 17:55 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
The drive winds between manicured lavender-lined lawns to a crescent-shaped home with a gleaming swimming pool on the Syrian coast: Bashar al-Assad's holiday hideaway disgusts those who now come here. "To think that he spent all that money and we lived in misery," spat Mudar Ghanem, 26. He is grey-skinned and his eyes are sunken after spending ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-16 16:15 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
In his first remarks since he was deposed, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday said he fled Syria only after Damascus had fallen and denounced the country's new leaders as "terrorists". An Islamist-led rebel alliance launched a lightning offensive from its northwest Syria bastion on November 27, swiftly capturing major cities from ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-16 14:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Nawaf Salam Syria Tartus strikes
Israeli strikes targeted military sites in Syria's coastal Tartus region overnight, a war monitor said Monday, calling them "the heaviest strikes" there in years. "Israeli warplanes launched strikes" targeting a series of sites including air defense units and "surface-to-surface missile depots", the Syrian ...