August 12th, 20220BIRMINGHAM - Rana Lotfi, an Arab American artist, pursues art as a means of therapy and expression.
Lotfi immigrated to the United States from Syria in 2002 after obtaining her bachelor's degree in fine art from Damascus University in Damascus, Syria.
Lotfi told The Arab American News that her passion for painting began at...
May 28th, 20221BEIRUT — Lebanon’s intelligence chief said Thursday that he met with Biden administration officials this week to discuss ways he could help secure the release of six Americans who are being held prisoner or are missing in Syria, including Austin Tice, a freelance journalist who contributed to The Washington Post.
Maj. Gen. Abbas...
May 3rd, 20210DAMASCUS — On Monday, Syria's higher constitutional court selected two obscure figures to appear on ballots standing against President Bashar al-Assad in a May 26 election, which the West rejects as a farce that will hurt diplomatic efforts to end the civil war.
From a list of 51 potential candidates, the court approved just...
April 23rd, 20210DAMASCUS — Thanks to a global initiative, Syria received the first 200,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, U.N. officials announced on Thursday.
The doses were delivered through the global COVAX initiative, which has also delivered the badly needed vaccine to Yemen. Another 54,000 vaccines were delivered to the northwest...
November 21st, 20200DAMASCUS – Syria’s longtime Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, a career diplomat who became one of the country’s most prominent faces to the outside world during the uprising against President Bashar Assad, died on Monday. He was 79.
Al-Moallem, who served as ambassador to Washington for nine years, starting in 1990 during...
August 2nd, 20180BEIRUT - Syrian state media said late on Thursday that air defenses had destroyed a “hostile target” west of the capital Damascus.
“Our air defenses confronted a hostile target and destroyed it west of Damascus,” the state news agency SANA said, quoting a military source.
Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have...
June 12th, 20180GENEVA/BEIRUT ― The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR hopes the Lebanese foreign ministry will quickly reverse a decision to freeze residency applications the agency has submitted for its staff, its spokesman said on Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil ordered the freeze last week after accusing UNHCR of hindering the return of...
June 5th, 20180BEIRUT — Lebanon is working with Damascus for the return of thousands of refugees who want to go back to Syria, a Lebanese official said on Thursday.
As the Syrian army, backed by Iran and Russia, has recovered territory, Lebanon’s president and other politicians have called for refugees to go back to “secure areas” before a...
May 4th, 20180BEIRUT — Syrian militants accepted a deal on Wednesday to quit their enclave near Homs city, a militant official said, as the Syrian army crushes the last two besieged insurgent pockets in the country.
The agreement, which Russia brokered, would restore state rule, with fighters handing over their heavy weapons, the Syrian official...
April 9th, 20180WASHINGTON, D.C. — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday he would not rule out “anything” after a suspected chemical attack in Syria triggered speculation about a U.S. military response, and he piled blame on Russia for falling short on its obligations to ensure that Syria abandoned its chemical weapons...
April 6th, 20180Turkey, Iran and Russia pledge to work for stability in Syria
ANKARA — Turkey, Iran and Russia pledged on Wednesday to accelerate efforts to bring stability to Syria, underlining their joint commitment to the country a day after President Trump raised the prospect of withdrawing U.S. troops.
A statement by the three countries after...
February 16th, 20180DAMASCUS — Israel will face "more surprises" should it again attack Syrian territory, Damascus said on Tuesday, after Syria's air defenses shot down an advanced Israeli warplane during the fiercest flare-up between the old foes in 36 years.
The F-16 jet was hit over northern Israel on Saturday as it returned from a raid on a Syrian...
January 26th, 20180VIENNA — U.N.-brokered peace talks with the Syrian government and the opposition began on Thursday, a few days before separate negotiations hosted by Damascus's close ally Russia that the West views with suspicion.
"The meeting was good," the head of the Syrian government delegation, Bashar al-Ja'afari, told Reuters as he left the...
November 1st, 20170BEIRUT - An Israeli airstrike targeted a factory south of the Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday and the Syrian army responded by firing a surface-to-air missile at the aircraft, a commander in a military alliance fighting in support of Damascus said.
The commander told Reuters the airstrike had hit a copper factory in the industrial...
May 19th, 20171DAMASCUS — The Syrian government on Tuesday denied U.S. accusations that a crematorium had been built at one of its prisons that could be used to dispose of detainees' remains.
A foreign ministry statement published by state news agency SANA said the U.S. administration had come out with "a new Hollywood story detached from reality"...
