This is Beirut 2024-12-18 09:25 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Damascus Israel UN Security Council
A UN envoy has warned that Syria's protracted conflict "has not ended yet", even as victorious Islamist-led rebels stepped up contacts with governments that deemed ousted president Bashar al-Assad a pariah. The United Nations' special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said on Tuesday "there have been significant hostilities in the last two weeks, ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-17 22:50 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
The United States said Tuesday it felt "cautious optimism" on the prospects of reaching a ceasefire in the 14-month war in Gaza, although it acknowledged that similar hopes had been dashed before. Hamas on Tuesday said that talks mediated by Qatar were "serious and positive," a day after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz described the two ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-17 21:55 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Murhaf Abu Qasra Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Syria
The military chief of Syria's victorious Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham said on Tuesday it would be "the first" to dissolve its armed wing and integrate into the armed forces. "In any state, all military units must be integrated into this institution," Murhaf Abu Qasra, known by his nom de guerre Abu Hassan al-Hamawi, said in an interview ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-17 19:40 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Israel Syria Benjamin Netanyahu Mount Hermon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a security briefing Tuesday atop a strategic Syrian mountain inside the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights that Israel seized this month, the defense minister said. Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and the heads of the armed forces and the domestic security agency visited ...
Nidal Ayoub 2024-12-17 19:16 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Syria HTS USA European Union Qatar Turkey
This influx appears oddly under the auspices of all the imaginable paradoxes that Syria embodies: international sanctions, foreign interferences (Turkish interventions, Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, etc.), and not least, the fact that talks are being held with the ruling coalition of rebels now in power, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-17 19:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Syria Bashar al-Assad Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
Syria's new rulers stepped up engagement on Tuesday with countries that deemed ousted president Bashar al-Assad a pariah, with the French flag raised at the embassy for the first time in over a decade. Assad fled Syria just over a week ago, as his forces abandoned tanks and other equipment in the face of a lightning offensive spearheaded by the ...
Samar El-Kadi 2024-12-17 18:20 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
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 18:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Genetic Modification Revivicor United Therapeutics
On a farm in the southern US state of Virginia, David Ayares and his research teams are breeding genetically modified pigs to transplant their organs into human patients. Revivicor, the biotech company Ayares leads, is at the forefront of xenotransplantation research -- the implantation of animal organs into humans -- which aims to solve a ...
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 12:20 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Israel Middle East Turkey Ukraine USA Vladimir Putin
After backing the rebels who overthrew Bashar al-Assad and brokering a key Horn of Africa peace deal, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan has boosted his international standing, leaving him well-placed to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, analysts say. Although Turkey was not directly involved in the Syrian strongman's overthrow, it has long ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-17 12:10 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Hamas Israel Palestine United Nations West Bank
Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that his country's forces would be free to act in the Gaza Strip even after its war with Hamas ends. "After eliminating Hamas's military and governmental capabilities in Gaza, Israel would have security control over Gaza with complete freedom of action" for the Israeli military, Katz said in a ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-17 11:55 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Damascus European Union Turkey
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday began talks with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a key visit following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. The talks in the capital Ankara come after the EU Commission announced the launch of an "air bridge" operation to deliver an initial 50 tonnes of health supplies to Syria ...