This is Beirut, 15/12 11:15 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
The citizens of Damascus largely celebrated the fall of Bashar al-Assad's hated regime with joy, after 13 long years of brutal civil war. But the city's drinking holes did have one concern. The rebel army that overthrew the former leader was led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group which some drinkers feared would forbid the sale of ...
This is Beirut, 14/12 20:35 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
United States Anthony Blinken Syria HTS Ahmed al-Sharaa
The United States has made contact with Syria's victorious Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday, despite previously designating the group as terrorists. Blinken's comments, after talks on Syria in Jordan, came as Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus, nearly a week after the Islamist-led rebels toppled ...
This is Beirut, 14/12 17:50 - Reading : 5 minute(s)
Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus on Saturday, nearly a week after president Bashar al-Assad was toppled by forces backed by Ankara, and 12 years after the diplomatic outpost was shuttered early in Syria's civil war. The move came as Middle Eastern and Western diplomats were meeting in Jordan for high-level talks on Syria, and a day after ...
This is Beirut, 14/12 16:35 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Syria Jordan Anthony Blinken HTS ISIS
Top diplomats from eight Arab countries, meeting in Jordan on Saturday, called for a peaceful transition in Syria with UN and Arab League support following Bashar al-Assad's ouster. In a final statement after the talks in the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba, foreign ministers from Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, the United Arab ...
This is Beirut, 13/12 21:40 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Damascus syria HTS Bashar al-Assad
Syria's Islamist-led rebel alliance had been planning the surprise ouster of President Basher al-Assad for a year, an opposition military leader told the Guardian in an interview published Friday. The Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Islamist group, which says it has moved away from its roots in Al-Qaeda, has long-controlled a part of northwest ...
This is Beirut, 13/12 21:25 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
A delegation from Qatar is due to visit Syria on Sunday for meetings with officials in its transitional government following the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, a Qatari diplomat told AFP Friday. "The first Qatari delegation visit to Syria is expected to happen Sunday where they will take the necessary steps to reopen the embassy and ...
This is Beirut, 12/12 19:55 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Damascus HTS Baath Syria Bashar al-Assad
Maher Semsmieh turned in his rifle on Thursday at an office of Syria's Baath party, more than 60 years after its oppressive rule in Syria began, and days after it ended. "We are no longer Baathists," Semsmieh, 43, said with a smile of relief, four days after Islamist-led rebels toppled the Baathist government of president Bashar al-Assad. "We ...
This is Beirut, 11/12 14:15 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Wrapped up against the cold in northern France, Syrian migrant Ali said that while he was delighted president Bashar al-Assad had been toppled, he was still determined to cross the sea to England. "I was happy when Bashar al-Assad left, he's a criminal," he said near the tent where he spent a bitter night in the port city of ...
This is Beirut, 11/12 13:45 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Tehran syria khamenei war Assad HTS
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that the weakening of the anti-Israel "resistance" after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in Syria would not diminish Tehran's power. Some, "unaware of the meaning of resistance, imagine that when the resistance becomes weak, Islamic Iran will also become weak... Iran ...
This is Beirut, 11/12 13:10 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
Damascus Gulf Qatar embassy HTS
Qatar said on Wednesday that it would soon reopen its embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus after president Bashar al-Assad's ouster in an Islamist-led rebel offensive. The Gulf country "will soon reopen its embassy in the sisterly Syrian Arab Republic after completing the necessary arrangements", foreign ministry spokesman Majed ...
This is Beirut, 11/12 12:55 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
The Kremlin said Wednesday that it wanted to see rapid stabilization in Syria, criticizing Israeli strikes and its creation of a "buffer zone" along the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Russia also said its military offensive on Ukraine remained its "absolute priority" amid questions over whether Moscow's almost three-year campaign there meant it ...
This is Beirut, 11/12 12:25 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Syria's new transitional prime minister has called for Syrians who have sought refuge abroad to return to their homeland following the ouster of longtime president Bashar al-Assad. Mohammad al-Bashir, appointed by rebel groups as the transitional head of government to run the country until March, told Italy's Corriere della Sera daily that one of ...