This is Beirut, 2024-12-31 13:20 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
The military chief of the radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has been appointed Minister of Defense in Syria’s transitional government, authorities announced on Tuesday. "The general command announces the appointment of General Mourhaf Abou Qasra as Minister of Defense in the new government of the Syrian Arab Republic," led by ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-31 12:20 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
The new Syrian authorities have tasked a central bank official, Maysaa Sabrine, with "managing affairs" at the institution, marking an unprecedented appointment for a woman to this position, an internal source told AFP on Tuesday. This financial expert, who had served as the first deputy governor of the Syrian central bank since 2018, began her ...
Philippe Abi Akl, 2024-12-31 10:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
President Elections Iran Syria Lebanon Israel
Although the Lebanese presidential election is – or should be – a purely internal matter, observers of the issue agree that it has become organically linked to changes in the region. These include everything from Israel’s war on Hezbollah and its repercussions to the peaceful coup in Syria. While it is true that Iran – through its arm in ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-30 16:40 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Syria HTS Ahmad al-Sharaa SOHR
Former rebels were promoted to officers in Syria's future army in a decree passed by de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa—with a war monitor and experts identifying on Monday foreign jihadists among them. The new authorities in Damascus, who until recently were Islamist-led rebels fighting to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, last week unveiled an accord ...
Charles Chartouni, 2024-12-30 10:37 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
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 ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-29 20:30 - Reading : less than a minute
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 ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-29 19:20 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
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 ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-29 17:30 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
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 ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-29 16:40 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
Saudi Arabia Syria HTS Jolani elections
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 ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-29 12:50 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Syria's new authorities have arrested nearly 300 people, including informants, pro-regime fighters and former soldiers, in a crackdown on loyalists to ousted former president Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor said Sunday. Since rebels led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group toppled Assad ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-28 17:20 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
Turkey's top diplomat on Saturday said Syrian Kurdish fighters essential for the United States in the fight against Islamic State (IS) extremists cannot be sheltered in Syria, in a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Blinken that "the PKK/YPG terrorist organization cannot be allowed to take ...
This is Beirut, 2024-12-28 16:30 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
A delegation from Turkey's energy ministry headed to Syria on Saturday to help Syrians obtain access to essential services after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. "A team from our energy ministry is on the way to Damascus," Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told a meeting of the ruling AKP party in the central Anatolian province of Nevsehir. "We ...