World

 Ukrainian FM Calls for the \
Ukrainian FM Calls for the "Elimination of Russian Presence in Syria"

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga urged new Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa on Monday to expel Russia from the country during an unannounced visit to Damascus. Moscow was one of former president Bashar al-Assad's key backers, intervening to help to turn the tide of Syria's civil war in his favour in 2015. The ex-president's toppling was ...

Syria: 31 Dead in Clashes Between Kurdish and Pro-Turkish Forces
Syria: 31 Dead in Clashes Between Kurdish and Pro-Turkish Forces

A Syria war monitor said 31 combatants had been killed since Sunday in ongoing battles between Turkey-backed groups and Kurdish-led forces. Swathes of northern Syria are controlled by a Kurdish-led administration whose de facto army, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), spearheaded the fight that helped defeat the Islamic State group in the ...

South Korea Orders Urgent Boeing 737-800 Inspections After Deadly Crash
South Korea Orders Urgent Boeing 737-800 Inspections After Deadly Crash

South Korea ordered Monday a "comprehensive inspection" of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country's carriers, after a Jeju Air plane crash-landed and burst into flames, killing 179 people on board. US air safety officials and staff from the beleaguered aircraft maker Boeing were arriving to join investigators probing the worst air ...

Moscow Opposes NATO and EU Troop Deployment to Ukraine
Moscow Opposes NATO and EU Troop Deployment to Ukraine

Russia is against the deployment of Western peacekeeping troops to Ukraine as part of any settlement to end the nearly three-year conflict, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said. Talk of the possible stationing of foreign troops in Ukraine to enforce any peace deal is circulating in Western capitals, with French President Emmanuel Macron and ...

Middle East Crisis: A Challenging Transformation
EditorialMiddle East Crisis: A Challenging Transformation

It was hardly surprising. In this part of the world, where decades of chronic turmoil are frequently interrupted by bouts of disorder fueled by power struggles, the potential for harm has yet to be fully contained. A new political landscape appears to be emerging in various parts of the Middle East, as declared by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ...

Chaos or Restructuring?
AnalysisChaos or Restructuring?

The regional landscape is far from reassuring; none of the political and military events have come to a closure, and none of the geostrategic and political issues have found a way to deliberation. The situation in Syria is under the pull and sway of strident political factionalism, clashing regional power politics and endemic instability. Lebanon ...

Three Mass Graves Discovered in Homs, According to the SOHR
Three Mass Graves Discovered in Homs, According to the SOHR

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), three mass graves have been discovered in the village of Al-Qabou, in the countryside of Homs, containing the bodies of 20 unidentified individuals. On December 23, SOHR sources reported that a mass grave had been found in the city of Homs, containing the bodies of over 1,200 ...

Uproar After Syria Official's Comments on Women
Uproar After Syria Official's Comments on Women

Comments by Syria's newly appointed head of women's affairs have sparked uproar, with social media users expressing outrage on Sunday, weeks after Islamist-led rebels toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad. Turkey's state-run TRT broadcaster this week asked Aisha al-Dibs, the only woman so far in Syria's transitional government since Assad's ...

Gaza Rescuers Say Israeli Strike on Hospital Kills 7
Gaza Rescuers Say Israeli Strike on Hospital Kills 7

Gaza's civil defense agency said an air strike hit a hospital Sunday, killing at least seven people, while Israel said it had targeted militants at the no longer functioning facility. "Seven martyrs and several injured people, including critical cases, have been recovered following the Israeli strike on the upper floor of Al-Wafaa Hospital in ...

Syria: Explosion Near Damascus Kills Several People
Syria: Explosion Near Damascus Kills Several People

An explosion at a weapons depot near Syria's capital Damascus on Sunday killed 11 people, a war monitor said, weeks after rebels ousted longtime leader Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the cause of the blast in the industrial area of Adra, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Damascus, was "likely" to have been an ...

'Like a Dream': AFP Photographer Returns to Syria
Videos'Like a Dream': AFP Photographer Returns to Syria

AFP photographer Sameer al-Doumy returns home after fleeing Syria in 2017, just one year before a horrific chemical weapons attack in April 2018 on his hometown of Douma, a rebel stronghold near Damascus. The 26-year-old award-winning photographer, who has spent the last few years covering the migrant crisis for AFP's Lille bureau in northern ...

Syria: Al-Joulani Announces Elections in Four Years
Syria: Al-Joulani Announces Elections in Four Years

The new leader of Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, announced in an exclusive interview with Al-Arabiya on Sunday that organizing elections in Syria could take up to four years, as it would require a complete population census. He also stated that drafting a new constitution could take three years. Rejecting criticism ...