May 2nd, 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 in...
April 26th, 20180BRUSSELS ― International donors raised $4.4 billion in emergency aid for Syria and its neighbors this year on Wednesday, but the total fell well short of the U.N. target for 2018 after the United States failed to submit a pledge.
Humanitarian agencies also pleaded for peace before the Syrian military and its Russian and Iranian...
April 24th, 20180WASHINGTON, D.C. ― President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron pledged on Tuesday to seek stronger measures to contain Iran, as Trump considers whether to ditch an international accord meant to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
At a joint news conference after lengthy talks, Trump did not repeat threats to...
April 23rd, 20180WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man linked to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, who was said to have praised "violent jihad", was captured in Syria by U.S.-backed forces more than a month ago, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
"We can confirm that Mohammad Haydar Zammar, a Syrian-born German national, was captured more than a month...
April 23rd, 20180By Farah Harb
The Arab American News
"Assad either didn't carry out the chemical attack or he "is the dumbest dictator on the planet Earth." -Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)
DEARBORN — The U.S. and its European allies carried out airstrikes on Friday, April 13, in retaliation for a suspected but unconfirmed chemical attack on April 7 in...
April 18th, 20180SHEBAA, Lebanon — Several hundred Syrians who have lived for years as refugees in Lebanon left for their home country on Wednesday in a rare case of a mass return of those who left the country since the Syrian civil war began in 2011.
Nearly 500 people, including children and the elderly, left the Shebaa area in southeast Lebanon in...
April 16th, 20180AMMAN - Syrian anti-aircraft defenses shot down missiles that hit the Syrian air base of Shayrat in Homs province late Monday night, Syrian state television said.
State television showed pictures of a missile that was shot in the air above the air base only days after a U.S., British and French attack on Syrian targets in retaliation...
April 16th, 20180PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday France will contribute 50 million euros ($61.9 million) toward urgent humanitarian aid for Syria following a meeting with a group of non-governmental organizations (NGO) in Paris.
“This evening I brought together NGOs working on the ground in Syria. Faced with the...
April 13th, 20181By Farah Harb
The Arab American News
While the U.S. media is focused on the coverage of President Trump’s “blurry” tweets bashing Syria and other fellow politicians along with the news about Khloe Kardashian’s cheating boyfriend, major events in Gaza, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon have gone almost...
April 11th, 20180WASHINGTON/BEIRUT — President Trump warned Russia on Wednesday of imminent military action in Syria over a suspected poison gas attack, declaring that missiles “will be coming” and lambasting Moscow for standing by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Trump was reacting to a warning from Russia on Tuesday that any U.S. missiles...
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...
April 4th, 20180WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump agreed in a National Security Council meeting this week to keep U.S. troops in Syria a little longer to defeat Islamic State but wants them out relatively soon, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.
Trump did not approve a specific withdrawal timetable at Tuesday’s meeting, the...
March 30th, 20180BEIRUT — The massive Russian-backed Syrian military offensive in the suburbs east of Damascus is almost over, with rebels holed up in just a single town after abandoning the rest of the eastern Ghouta enclave, Moscow declared on Thursday.
Russia and the rebel faction controlling Douma, the last Ghouta town still in insurgent hands,...
March 26th, 20180BEIRUT - Syrian rebel factions are blaming each other for opening the way to their defeat near Damascus, underlining splits that plagued the armed uprising against President Bashar al-Assad since its earliest days.
The rivalry between the factions of eastern Ghouta - Failaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Islam - had led to the effective...
March 23rd, 20181BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday Turkey's military offensive in Syria's northern town of Afrin was unacceptable and she criticized Russia for "just watching" the continuing attacks by Syrian forces on eastern Ghouta.
Speaking in the lower house of parliament, Merkel said the government also condemned the...
March 23rd, 20180BEIRUT — Iran played a significant role in defeating ISIS in the Middle East and has brought stability to most of the region, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday.
Iran has been locked in a regional power struggle with Saudi Arabia that has spilled into the wars in Syria and Yemen, where they have backed opposing...
March 16th, 20180BEIRUT — Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah does not expect its arch foe Israel to launch a war for now in Lebanon but is prepared for one, the deputy leader of the group told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
As the war in Syria enters its eighth year, Sheikh Naim Qassem also said there was no end in sight to the conflict which would...
March 13th, 20180MOSCOW - Russia said on Tuesday it had information that the United States planned to bomb the government quarter in Damascus on an invented pretext, and said it would respond militarily if it felt Russian lives were threatened by such an attack.
Rebels in the enclave of eastern Ghouta were planning to fake a chemical weapons attack...
March 6th, 20180MOSCOW - A Russian military transport plane crashed in Syria on Tuesday, killing all 39 people on board, Russian news agencies quoted the defense ministry as saying, sharply raising the death toll from the Kremlin’s intervention in the Syrian war.
The defense ministry was cited as saying that the plane, a Soviet-designed An-26,...
March 6th, 20180MOSCOW/BEIRUT - The Russian military has offered Syrian rebels safe passage out of eastern Ghouta, setting out a proposal to let the opposition surrender its last major stronghold near Damascus to the Syrian government forces, which rebels have so far rejected.
The Russian defense ministry said rebels could leave with their families and...
March 3rd, 20180BEIRUT - Syrian government forces gained more ground in an assault on eastern Ghouta near Damascus on Saturday as they seek to defeat the last major rebel enclave near the capital, a war monitor and a news service run by Lebanon’s Hezbollah said.
The Syrian war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people since 2011, has...
March 2nd, 20180GENEVA — A Russian plan for a five-hour pause in fighting in Syria's eastern Ghouta needs to be expanded to allow aid deliveries to enter and civilians and urgent medical cases to leave, United Nations officials said on Thursday.
In one of the fiercest onslaughts of Syria's seven-year civil war, hundreds of people have died in 11...
February 23rd, 20180The United Nations Security Council will vote on Friday on a draft resolution demanding a 30-day truce in Syria to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations, but it was not immediately clear if the text had won the support of Syrian ally Russia.
The vote comes as warplanes pounded eastern Ghouta, the last rebel enclave near Syria's...
February 23rd, 20180ANKARA/BEIRUT — Pro-Syrian government forces entered Syria's northwestern Afrin region on Tuesday to help a Kurdish militia there fend off a Turkish assault, raising the prospect of a wider escalation of the conflict.
Soon after the convoy of militia fighters - waving Syrian flags and brandishing weapons - entered Afrin, Syrian...
February 20th, 20180BEIRUT — A major donor meeting aimed at gathering support for Lebanon’s economy will take place on April 6 in Paris, a Lebanese government source said on Tuesday.
The Cedre conference, also known as Paris IV, will be one of three international meetings due this year at which Lebanon will seek support for its economy and army, and...
February 16th, 20180ALEPPO, Syria — Traditional musicians in Syria's Aleppo say their art is flourishing again 13 months after fighting in the city ended, as new students learn the techniques of "Qoudud" singing.
At the National Choral Institute in Aleppo, singing coach Ahmed Kedah said he has between 30 and 50 pupils, including both school children...
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...
