Category: 2. Middle East

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Syrian security forces are preparing to redeploy to the Druze-majority Sweida city to quell fighting with Bedouin tribes, a Syrian interior ministry spokesperson said on Friday, further straining a fragile truce in Syria’s south.

A ceasefire announced on Wednesday briefly ended days of bloody fighting that erupted when Bedouin and Druze fighters clashed in Sweida province, prompting the Syrian government to send in troops – further spiking violence.

The clashes drew in…

The Syrian presidency on Thursday night accused Druze fighters in Sweida of breaching the ceasefire agreement, under which government forces had withdrawn from the southern province, home to a majority Druze population.

In an official statement, the presidency said that what it described as “outlawed forces”—a term it uses to refer to Druze factions in Sweida—had launched “a horrific act of violence, widely documented by international observers,…

US aviation giant Boeing on Thursday signed a contract valued at $7 billion to sell 12 787 Dreamliners, with options for six more, to Gulf Air, as the Bahrain-based carrier looks to expand its global network.

The order comes just one month after an Air India Boeing 787 crashed shortly after takeoff, killing a total of 260 people on the plane and on the ground.

“Once finalized, this order will bring the carrier’s firm order book to 14 of the versatile wide-body jets and will support 30,000 jobs…

By John Irish

PARIS (Reuters) -France, Britain and Germany told Iran on Thursday that they wanted Tehran to resume diplomacy immediately over its nuclear programme and warned if there were no concrete steps by the end of the summer they would restore U.N. sanctions.

The foreign ministers of the so-called E3, along with the European Union’s foreign policy chief, held their first call with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi since Israel and the United States carried out air strikes in…

(Reuters) -Leaders of ethnically split Cyprus have agreed to continue discussions towards confidence building, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday, in a dispute which has kept NATO partners Greece and Turkey at odds for decades.

The Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities will press ahead with attempts to open new crossing points between the two sides and cooperating on solar energy initiatives, Guterres said after hosting the Cypriot leaders at U.N. headquarters in New…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. presented Israel and Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas with an updated Gaza ceasefire proposal on Wednesday, Axios reported on Thursday, citing two sources.

The two main updates in the latest proposal had to do with the scope of the Israeli military’s withdrawal from Gaza during a ceasefire and the ratio of Palestinian prisoners to be released for each Israeli hostage, Axios reported.

The Qatari prime minister is expected to meet with…

(Reuters) -A Russian crew member of a Greek cargo ship sunk by Houthi militants is undergoing treatment in Yemen, Russia’s state RIA news agency said on Thursday, quoting a source.

RIA identified the Russian mariner as Aleksei Galaktionov, one of several crew members picked up by the Yemeni navy after the ship was sunk. It quoted a highly placed source as saying the man, who had suffered wounds in the attack, was now in a markedly improved condition.

Maritime security sources had earlier…

By Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States did not support recent Israeli strikes on Syria, the State Department said on Thursday, adding that Washington made clear its displeasure after tensions escalated and worked quickly to stop it.

On Wednesday, Israel launched airstrikes in Damascus, while also hitting government forces in the south, demanding they withdraw and saying Israel aimed to protect Syrian Druze – part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in…

BEIRUT (Reuters) -One elderly man had been shot in the head in his living room. Another in his bedroom. The body of a woman lay in the street. After days of bloodshed in Syria’s Druze city of Sweida, survivors emerged on Thursday to collect and bury the scores of dead found across the city.

A ceasefire overnight brought an end to ferocious fighting between Druze militia and government forces sent to the city to quell clashes between Druze and Bedouin fighters.

The violence worsened sharply…