syria

Syrian Suspect in Berlin Stabbing Wanted 'to Kill Jews'

A Syrian man arrested after a stabbing attack at Berlin's Holocaust memorial that wounded a Spanish man had been harboring a "plan to kill Jews", police and prosecutors said Saturday. The 19-year-old arrested Friday with blood stains on his hands was carrying a copy of the Koran and a prayer rug, and initial investigations suggested ...

What Should America Do About Syria?

While Lebanese are focused intently on developments in Syria, the topic is absent in Washington. Yet what is happening there is one of the landmark geo-strategic developments of the Middle East of our times, the demise of a long-standing problematic regime for America and its friends and part and parcel of the reversal of fortunes of a major ...

UN Says Syria Economic Recovery could take Half a Century

Syria would need more than 50 years to get back to its economic level before its devastating civil war at current growth rates, the United Nations said Thursday. "Fourteen years of conflict in Syria have undone nearly four decades of economic, social, and human capital progress," the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said. "At current growth ...

Israel Says Strikes Lebanon-Syria Border Crossings Used by Hezbollah

Israel said Friday it struck crossings on the Lebanon-Syria border used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons, with a Syria war monitor reporting an unspecified number of people wounded in the attack. The Israeli military said its air forces "struck crossing points in the area of the Lebanon-Syria border" used by Hezbollah  "in attempts to smuggle ...

Lebanon-Syria: Smuggling Thrives on Fuel

The illegal trafficking of goods between Lebanon and Syria has been a longstanding issue. Despite the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, little progress has been made, even with the United Kingdom’s assistance to Lebanon in securing its borders, notably through the construction of surveillance towers along the northern and eastern ...

Lebanon’s Tense Borders Signal End of Iranian Influence 

From the military skirmishes at the southern border to the clashes portrayed as tribal disputes in the northeastern front, the connection is clear, and the backdrop is the same: Iran and its proxies. The major blow suffered by the pro-Iranian axis in Lebanon and Syria—leading to the collapse of Tehran’s affiliates due to its inability to ...

Iran Confirms Receiving 'Messages' From New Syrian Government

Iran said Saturday that it had received messages from the new government in Damascus following the ouster of its longtime Syrian ally, former president Bashar al-Assad. "The Islamic Republic of Iran is indirectly in contact with Damascus," Tehran's special envoy for Syrian affairs, Mohammad Reza Raouf Sheibani, was quoted as saying by the ...

UK Plans to Ease Syria Sanctions after Assad Fall

The UK plans to ease sanctions on Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, under a new plan announced by the government on Thursday. Still weighed down by heavy international sanctions, the new Syrian government is aiming to persuade Western capitals that the jihadist origins of the rebels that toppled Assad, after 14 years in charge, are ...