This is Beirut 2024-12-24 05:15 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
For the first time since the fire in 2019, Notre-Dame de Paris is celebrating Christmas again on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the traditional Nativity Masses expected to attract thousands of worshippers. ‘We are now back at Notre-Dame, which has just been opened to worship and visitors. Our hearts are in celebration,’ said the archbishop of ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-24 05:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
The ministers in François Bayrou's government will take up their duties on Tuesday, on the eve of Christmas, as they hand over power to the Prime Minister, who is confident in his ability to avoid censure. ‘I am convinced that the action I am defining before you and the government team will ensure that we will not be ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-24 03:05 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Hamas Israel Middle East Benjamin Netanyahu Palestine
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday ‘cautiously’ referred to ‘progress’ towards an agreement on the hostages held in the Gaza Strip since the Palestinian Hamas attack in October 2023, one of the conditions for a ceasefire. Indirect negotiations last week in Qatar between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Doha and Egypt, ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-23 22:46 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Syria Bashar al-Assad Human Rights Watch Amnesty International ADMSP
Three rights group on Monday appealed to Syria's new rulers to urgently preserve evidence of atrocities committed under former president Bashar al-Assad. Such evidence -- including government and intelligence documents as well as mass graves -- will be essential for establishing the fate of tens of thousands of people forcibly disappeared, ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-23 22:35 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Israel Israel Katz Houthi Movement Ismail Haniyeh
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz acknowledged that Tel Aviv had killed former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this year, as he warned the military would "decapitate" the leadership of Yemen's Huthi rebels. "We will strike hard at the Huthis... and decapitate their leadership -- just as we did with Haniyeh, ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-23 20:55 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkey Syria
Ensuring the protection of Syria's territorial integrity is an unchanging line for Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday. "Protecting Syria's territorial integrity and unitary structure under all circumstances is Turkey's unchanging line. We never step back from this," he said after remarks warning Israel that it would be "forced" to ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-23 20:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
France Emmanuel Macron Francois Bayrou
French President Emmanuel Macron named a new government Monday evening, putting together a team under Francois Bayrou, his fourth prime minister of the year, to drag the second-largest EU economy out of political crisis. Macron named former prime minister Elisabeth Borne education minister in a new cabinet under centrist Bayrou, the presidency ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-23 19:01 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Israel Benjamin Netanyahu Houthi Movement Gaza
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told lawmakers Monday that Israel's war in Gaza had offered opportunities to sign new peace accords with Arab nations and "dramatically change the face of" the Middle East. "Moderate Arab countries view Israel as a regional power and a potential ally. I intend to seize this ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-23 18:13 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Two Syrian doctors and a nurse told AFP in a series of interviews over the weekend that Bashar al-Assad's government coerced them into providing false testimony to international investigators after a deadly 2018 chlorine attack. The three, who treated the wounded at a field hospital in the rebel-held town of Douma near Damascus after the ...
David Hale 2024-12-23 15:05 - Reading : 6 minute(s)
Syria Lebanon USA Donald Trump Iran Turkey
So many Syrians and Lebanese are celebrating the downfall of the Assad regime, whose last decade of rule came courtesy of Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah. The proximate cause of the final collapse is debatable; some attribute it to the inability of Russia to come to Assad's defense, while others cite Israel's decimation of Assad's Hezbollah ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-23 14:35 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Germany on Monday warned Turkey against stepping up military action against Kurdish armed groups in the north of Syria, two weeks after Islamist-led rebels toppled Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday it was time to destroy "terrorist" groups that posed a threat to Syria's survival, namely the ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-23 13:50 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
Damascus Saudi Arabia syria meeting
A Saudi delegation has met Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, a source close to the government told AFP on Monday. The delegation joins a list of visitors to the Syrian capital since the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, led by Sharaa, spearheaded the toppling of president Bashar al-Assad on December 8. The "Saudi senior ...