August 26th, 20190BEIRUT - Syrian government forces opened a corridor on Thursday for people who want to leave insurgent territory in northwest Syria, where an army offensive has gained ground.
Tens of thousands of people have fled towards the Turkish border in recent days as air and ground attacks battered parts of Idlib and Hama in the northwest, the...
August 10th, 20190BEIRUT - On top of being refugees who have been displaced twice, Palestinian refugees who previously resided in Syria and fled the war to Lebanon have been rejected entry visas to visit Mecca for the holy pilgrimage.
Tens of Palestinian refugees with "stateless" passports from Syria have been denied the chance to perform Hajj by Saudi...
July 8th, 20190BERLIN - Germany on Monday rejected demands by the United States to deploy ground troops in Syria, a stance likely to anger President Trump who wants Chancellor Angela Merkel to commit to a bigger military role in the Middle East.
“When I say the government envisages sticking to the current measures in the anti-Islamic State...
April 23rd, 20190OCCUPIED GOLAN HEIGHTS - Israel said on Tuesday it would name a new community on the occupied Golan Heights after President Trump as an expression of gratitude for his recognition of its claim of sovereignty over the strategic plateau.
Israel captured the Golan from Syria in a 1967 war and annexed it, against international law. The...
February 8th, 20190WASHINGTON, DC — President Trump said on Wednesday he expected a formal announcement as early as next week that the coalition fighting ISIS militants has reclaimed all of the territory previously held by the extremist group.
“Their land is gone. It’s a big factor — their land is gone,” Trump told foreign ministers and other...
January 31st, 20190WASHINGTON, DC - In a rebuke of President Trump, the Republican-led U.S. Senate advanced largely symbolic legislation on Thursday opposing plans for any abrupt withdrawal of troops from Syria and Afghanistan.
The Senate voted 68-23 in favor of a non-binding amendment, drafted by Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, saying it...
January 28th, 20190TEHRAN - A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander on Monday threatened Israel with destruction if it attacks Iran, state media reported.
The comments by Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy head of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, came after an Israeli attack on Iranian targets in Syria last week - the...
January 26th, 20190BEIRUT — Hezbollah has “for years” been able to enter Israel, the Lebanese group’s leader said on Saturday, responding for the first time to Israel’s discovery of tunnels dug into Israeli territory from Lebanon.
Israel’s unveiling of what it called Hezbollah “attack tunnels” last month, and Lebanon’s accusation that...
December 21st, 20180TEL AVIV — Israel will escalate its attacks against Iranian-aligned forces in Syria after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
Some Israeli officials have said President Trump’s move, announced on Wednesday, could help Iran by removing a U.S. garrison that...
December 21st, 20180WASHINGTON — President Trump has begun what will be a total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, declaring on Wednesday they have succeeded in their mission to defeat ISIS and were no longer needed in the country.
A decision to pull out completely, confirmed by U.S. officials, coincides with the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops finishing...
December 10th, 20180Watching the ongoing debate between U.S. liberal and right-wing pundits in U.S. mainstream media, one rarely gets the impression that Washington is responsible for the unfolding crisis in Central America.
In fact, no other country is as accountable as the United States for the Central American bedlam and resulting refugee...
December 3rd, 20180When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his army to carry out a limited operation in the besieged Gaza Strip on November 12, he certainly did not anticipate that his military adventure would destabilize his government and threaten the very survival of his right-wing coalition.
But it did, far more than the multiple...
November 4th, 20180The next round of economic sanctions on Iran, which will start going into effect on Nov.4, will mainly target the country’s oil and gas industries. These sanctions were eased after the 2015 signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, but are being phased back in following...
October 7th, 20180On Wednesday, an Israeli official played down the Russian upgrading of Syria’s air defenses, saying the newly supplied S-300 missile system could be defeated by Israel’s stealth fighters and possibly destroyed on the ground.
Moscow said on Tuesday that it had delivered the S-300, a decision it took after accusing Israel of...
October 1st, 20180Israel is ready to reopen a crossing point into the Syrian-controlled Golan Heights now that Syrian government forces have regained control from rebels, according to Israeli Minister of War Avigdor Lieberman.
But Lieberman, on a visit to the Israeli-occupied side of the Quneitra crossing on Thursday, said any resumption of operations...
September 30th, 20180WASHINGTON, D.C. — More than 1,100 civilians have been killed in U.S.-led strikes against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria since the operation began in 2014, the U.S. military said on Thursday.
The coalition fighting ISIS militants said in a statement that during the month of August it had determined that an additional 53 civilians...
September 21st, 20180BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Thursday, Sept. 20, that his group had obtained precision rockets despite Israeli strikes in recent years aimed at cutting the supply route through Syria.
“No matter what you do to cut the route, the matter is over and the resistance possesses precision and non-precision rockets...
September 19th, 20180BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah, a key Damascus ally, said on Wednesday that his group will keep its military presence in Syria until further notice, commending the Idlib Russian-Turkish agreement as a step toward reaching a political solution in the country.
“We will stay there (in Syria) even after the...
September 17th, 20180AMMAN — A Syrian rebel commander said on Thursday rare military exercises with U.S. Marines in southern Syria sent a strong message to Russia and Iran that the Americans and the rebels intend to stay and confront any threats to their presence.
Colonel Muhanad al Talaa, commander of the Pentagon-backed Maghawir al Thawra group, told...
September 9th, 20180BEIRUT — On Thursday, Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis said in Damascus that opposition-controlled Idlib province will soon be restored to Syrian state sovereignty, vowing to win any coming war.
“Idlib will soon be restored to the nation,” Khamis said in a speech during the opening ceremony of the 60th edition of the annual...
September 1st, 20180MOSCOW — Russia will begin a major naval exercise in the Mediterranean on Saturday, the Ministry of Defense announced, a move the Kremlin said was justified by a failure to deal with militants in Syria’s Idlib province.
Idlib and areas surrounding it are the last major enclave held by rebels opposed to Syrian President Bashar...
August 26th, 20180MOSCOW - A senior Russian official warned the U.S. on Saturday against making any “reckless” moves in Syria, the RIA news agency reported.
Reacting to comments by National Security Adviser John Bolton about Washington’s possible strong reaction in the event of a chemical or biological attack in the Syrian region of Idlib, Deputy...
August 17th, 20180BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah Party, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said on Tuesday his group was stronger than ever and would “very soon” celebrate victory in Syria, where it has been fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad government.
Nasrallah was speaking on live television to mark the anniversary of a 2006 war...
August 4th, 20180MOSCOW — Russia will deploy its military police on the Golan Heights frontier between Syria and Israel, its defense ministry said on Thursday, after weeks of mounting volatility in the area.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s sweeping away of rebels in southwestern Syria has worried Israel, which believes it could allow his...
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...
July 29th, 20180On Thursday, the Syrian city of Sweida buried dozens of its Druze inhabitants who were killed the day before in coordinated massacres carried out by ISIS terrorists. Residents and witnesses said they overran villages and staged multiple suicide attacks inside the city.
They said the attacks that killed more than 200 people— the...
July 28th, 20180DETROIT — On Tuesday, July 24, a Dearborn man was charged in an unsealed indictment with providing material support to ISIS after being captured on an ISIS battlefield.
Ibraheem Musaibli, 28, was taken into custody by coalition-backed forces this month while attempting to escape the Middle Euphrates River Valley in northern Syria,...
July 22nd, 20180BEIRUT/AMMAN — President Bashar al-Assad is set to recover control of the Syrian frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in a major victory over rebels who have agreed to surrender terms, sources on both sides said on Thursday.
Backed by Russian air power and unopposed by Assad’s foreign adversaries, government forces...
