Category: 2. Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria: Two Republican members of the US Congress were in the Syrian capital Friday on an unofficial visit organized by a Syrian-American nonprofit, the first by US legislators since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December.

Also Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Syrian President…

Sitting in a crowd of mothers and children under the harsh sun, Najlaa Ahmed described the moment the Rapid Support Forces men poured into Darfur’s Zamzam displacement camp, looting and burning homes as shells rained down and drones flew overhead.

She lost track of most of her family as she fled. “I don’t know what’s become of them, my mother, father, siblings, my grandmother, I came here with strangers,” she said — one of six survivors who told…

The United States and Iran are set to resume high-stakes talks Saturday on Tehran’s nuclear programme, a week after an initial round of discussions that both sides described as “constructive”.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will hold the Oman-mediated talks in Rome.

They come one week after the two sides held what Iran called indirect talks in Muscat. Those were the first talks at such a high level between the foes since US President Donald Trump…

The United States and Iran concluded a second round of high-stakes talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme on Saturday, agreeing to meet again in a week for further discussions.

The Oman-mediated talks in Rome lasted about four hours, Iranian state television reported, with Tehran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi declaring it a “good meeting” that yielded progress.

“This time we managed to reach a better understanding on a series of principles and goals,” he told Iranian state TV.

Iran’s foreign…

The United States and Iran made progress in a second round of high-stakes talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme on Saturday and agreed to meet again next week, both sides said.

The Oman-mediated talks in Rome lasted about four hours, Iranian state television and a senior US official said. Tehran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi declared it a “good meeting” that yielded progress.

“This time we managed to reach a better understanding on a series of principles and goals,” he told Iranian state TV.

The…

Sitting in a crowd of mothers and children under the harsh sun, Najlaa Ahmed described the moment the Rapid Support Forces men poured into Darfur’s Zamzam displacement camp, looting and burning homes as shells rained down and drones flew overhead.

She lost track of most of her family as she fled. “I don’t know what’s become of them, my mother, father, siblings, my grandmother, I came here with strangers,” she said — one of six survivors who told…

The United States will roughly halve the number of troops it has deployed in Syria to less than 1,000 in the coming months, the Pentagon said Friday.

Washington has had troops in Syria for years as part of international efforts against the Islamic State (IS) group, which rose out of the chaos of the country’s civil war to seize swaths of territory there and in neighboring Iraq over a decade ago.

The brutal jihadists have since suffered major defeats in both countries, but still remain a…

The Turkish Embassy in Cairo organised an informative event on Thursday to highlight Egypt’s relationship with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the role of both Turkiye and Italy in serving as the NATO Contact Point in Cairo.

The event was held on Thursday, at the residence of Turkish Ambassador Salih Mutlu Sen under the title “NATO Mission: Past, Present and Partnership with Egypt”, on the occasion of Turkiye and Italy embassies assuming…

Hamas has condemned the United States’ air strikes on Yemen’s Ras Issa oil port in Al-Hudaydah province, which killed 38 Yemenis and injured dozens, describing the attack as a war crime and a violation of Yemeni sovereignty, Anadolu reported.

In a statement issued on Friday, Hamas said: “We strongly condemn the criminal American aerial aggression targeting the Ras Issa oil port in Al-Hudaydah province of the Republic of Yemen, which resulted in the…