This is Beirut 2024-12-16 18:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Several power plants in Iran have been shut down due to a fuel shortage exacerbated by a cold wave straining energy supply, local media reported on Monday. Iran, a major energy producer, holds the world's second-largest natural gas reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), and ranked as the seventh-largest crude ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-16 18:10 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Europe Germany Olaf Scholz elections
Germany's centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote on Monday after weeks of turmoil, setting Europe's biggest economy on the path to early elections on February 23. The Bundestag vote, which Scholz had expected to lose, allows President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to dissolve the legislature and formally order an election. The ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-16 17:55 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
The drive winds between manicured lavender-lined lawns to a crescent-shaped home with a gleaming swimming pool on the Syrian coast: Bashar al-Assad's holiday hideaway disgusts those who now come here. "To think that he spent all that money and we lived in misery," spat Mudar Ghanem, 26. He is grey-skinned and his eyes are sunken after spending ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-16 16:15 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
In his first remarks since he was deposed, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday said he fled Syria only after Damascus had fallen and denounced the country's new leaders as "terrorists". An Islamist-led rebel alliance launched a lightning offensive from its northwest Syria bastion on November 27, swiftly capturing major cities from ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-16 14:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Israeli strikes targeted military sites in Syria's coastal Tartus region overnight, a war monitor said Monday, calling them "the heaviest strikes" there in years. "Israeli warplanes launched strikes" targeting a series of sites including air defense units and "surface-to-surface missile depots", the Syrian ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-16 13:20 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Damascus Turkey USA Washington
Syria's Kurds, who run a semi-autonomous administration in the northeast, called Monday for an end to all fighting in the country and extended a hand to the new authorities in Damascus. Hussein Othman, the head of the administration's executive council, called for "a stop to military operations over the entire Syrian territory in order to begin a ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-16 12:05 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
Damascus Israel Turkey Golan Syria
Turkey on Monday denounced an Israeli plan to double the population living in the occupied and annexed Golan Heights as a bid to "expand its borders". "This decision is a new stage in Israel's goal of expanding its borders through occupation," the foreign ministry said in a statement condemning the move. Israel's government on Sunday approved a ...
Vanessa Kallas 2024-12-16 11:10 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Hezbollah Middle East Captagon Syria
The Assad regime has fallen, leaving behind the largest Captagon empire in the world. For years, the regime relied on the multibillion-dollar Captagon market to finance its war efforts, support allied militias like Hezbollah and circumvent international sanctions. Recent seizures of Captagon factories and pills in former regime strongholds ...
Michel Touma 2024-12-16 11:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Israel Middle East Benjamin Netanyahu Syria Bashar al-Assad
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had anticipated it well before Bashar al-Assad's downfall, pointing to the emergence of a new Middle East. Likewise, President-elect Donald Trump had set the tone during his campaign, emphasizing his commitment to forging peace in a region beset by over seven decades of armed conflict and largely ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-16 10:40 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Damascus European Union Syria HTS
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Monday the bloc's envoy to Syria was going to Damascus to talk to the new Islamist-led rulers, as Western powers stepped up engagement after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad. The outreach from Brussels comes after the United States and Britain said they had made contact with the new authorities in Damascus, ...
This is Beirut 2024-12-16 10:10 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Hamas Israel Palestine United Nations
Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory on Sunday killed at least 40 people, including several children, an Al Jazeera TV cameraman and three rescuers. Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera said its cameraman Ahmed al-Louh was killed "in an Israeli bombardment" that targeted Nuseirat refugee camp in the ...
Charles Chartouni 2024-12-16 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Syria’s political plight is at the crossroads between potential disintegration, renewed civil instabilities and eventual reconciliation, which helps overcome the bitter legacy of a long-haul civil war. The downfall of the Assad regime is of good omen since it sets an end to the excruciating travails bequeathed by a bloody dictatorship and its ...