Iran’s top diplomat warned Friday against “destructive interference” in Syria’s future and said decisions should lie solely with the country’s people, writing in Chinese state media as he visited Beijing. Abbas Araghchi touched down in the Chinese capital on Friday afternoon, Iranian state media reported, to begin his first official visit to the country since…
Rifaat al-Assad, an uncle of the ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad charged in Switzerland with war crimes over the bloody suppression of a revolt in 1982, has flown from Beirut to Dubai in recent days, two Lebanese security officials said on Friday. The officials said that “many members” of the al-Assad family had travelled to Dubai from…
US strikes against Yemen’s Houthis will continue for as long as the Iran-backed group still has the ability to threaten shipping lanes and Israel, the White House said on Friday. The Houthis began attacking ships in and around the Red Sea one year ago in what they said was a solidarity campaign with Palestinians in Gaza. The…
The wife and daughter of one of deposed Syrian president Bashar Assad’s cousins were arrested Friday at the Beirut airport, where they attempted to fly out with allegedly forged passports, Lebanese judicial and security officials said. Assad’s uncle departed the day before. Rasha Khazem, the wife of Duraid Assad — the son of former Syrian Vice President…
A US Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery was used to shoot down a Houthi missile fired at Israel earlier in the week, sources familiar with the operation said Friday. However, it is still unclear if the interception was successful. The US deployed a second THAAD to Israel in October in what the Pentagon said was to…
According to Maria Zakharova, this speaks of the fact that the West continues to do everything to escalate the conflict with Russia, not sparing effort or anyone in Ukraine. The last US aid package to Kiev, which the administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden plans to announce soon, cannot ensure Ukraine’s security, its effect…
Among other things, “members of the Commonwealth have been increasing cooperation in the fight against extremism, transborder crime, and drug trafficking, and everyday activities and contacts between security agencies have been established,” the Russian president said. Russian President Vladimir Putin highlighted common approaches shared by countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) toward international…
An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet crashed on Wednesday in western Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people on board, officials said. The Embraer 190 aircraft that was supposed to fly northwest from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the city of Grozny in Chechnya in southern Russia instead flew across the Caspian Sea and went down…
Yemen’s Houthis said Wednesday that they had fired a ballistic missile at central Israel, with Israeli forces saying they intercepted the attack. The missile was aimed at the Tel Aviv area, the Iran-backed Houthis said. The Israelis reported it was shot down before it entered Israeli territory. “The Yemeni Armed Forces targeted a military target of…
Two Pakistan paramilitary soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb on Wednesday as they guarded members of the Qatari royal family on a bird hunting expedition, officials said. Hunting enthusiasts among the Gulf elite travel to Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province every winter to catch the rare and reclusive houbara bustard using falcons. A convoy containing…
Pope Francis in his Christmas message on Wednesday called for talks between Ukraine and Russia to end the war that followed Moscow’s full-scale invasion two years ago and has killed tens of thousands. In his Christmas Day “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and world) address, Francis mentioned the Ukraine conflict directly and called for “the boldness…
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Kurdish militants in Syria would either lay down their weapons or “be buried,” amid hostilities between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and the militants since the fall of Bashar al-Assad this month. Following al-Assad’s departure, Ankara has repeatedly insisted that the Kurdish YPG militia must disband, asserting that the group…
The Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel traded blame on Wednesday over failure to conclude a ceasefire agreement despite progress reported by both sides in past days. Hamas said that Israel had set new conditions, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the group of going back on understandings already reached. “The occupation has set…
Ensuring the protection of Syria’s territorial integrity is an unchanging line for Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday. “Protecting Syria’s territorial integrity and unitary structure under all circumstances is Turkey’s unchanging line. We never step back from this,” he said after remarks warning Israel that it would be “forced” to withdraw from land it had seized….
US President Joe Biden on Monday vetoed legislation to add 66 new judges to understaffed federal courts nationally, a once widely bipartisan measure that would have been the first major expansion of the federal judiciary since 1990. The JUDGES Act, initially supported by many members of both parties, would have increased the number of trial…
