Category: 2. Middle East

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Wednesday meets France’s Emmanuel Macron in Paris on his first visit to Europe since overthrowing longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

The visit comes with Syria’s new authorities, who have roots in the Al-Qaeda jihadist network, under pressure from Europe to show they are serious about protecting human rights as Damascus seeks the full lifting of Assad-era sanctions.

Sectarian clashes in March in which more than 1,700 people were killed, mostly among Assad’s…

Sara, a Dubai-based journalist, joined the US-funded Alhurra TV news channel hoping for job security. But after it abruptly stopped broadcasting and fired most staff, she’s wondering how to make ends meet.

Alhurra, the only Arabic-language US station in a region where anti-American feeling is common, went off-air last month, hit by widespread cuts under President Donald Trump.

The station, which has struggled to compete in a crowded market that includes Qatar’s Al Jazeera, had already sacked…

Two US Navy pilots were rescued after ditching their F/A-18 fighter jet during a landing mishap on the USS Harry S. Truman off Yemen’s coast on Monday, US officials confirmed to Al-Monitor.

The pilots were forced to eject due to an arrestment failure in which the aircraft’s tailhook failed to sufficiently engage on the deck, one official said. The two pilots were recovered via helicopter from the water and treated for minor injuries, CNN first reported on Monday night.

Why it matters: The…

War-weary civilians have looked up at a blackened sky in Port Sudan this week as the two-year war they had fled finally reached their once-safe haven on Sudan’s Red Sea coast.

“Panic is setting in, people are terrified,” Port Sudan native Sami Hussein Abdel Wahab told AFP as smoke billowed behind him.

Giant plumes of thick smoke have hung in Port Sudan’s skies since Sunday, when the first drone strikes, blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), struck the city.

Tuesday’s dawn…

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Yemen’s Houthi rebels have informed the White House they will not be carrying out additional attacks on commercial ships, saying the US will reciprocate by halting attacks on Yemen, Anadolu reports.

“We will take their word. They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that’s what the purpose of what we were doing,” Trump told reporters as he hosted Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the White…

Israeli warplanes launched air strikes on the Sanaa airport in the Yemeni capital on Tuesday, shortly after ordering residents to evacuate, according to the Houthi group, Anadolu reports.

Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV said several strikes targeted the airport. Warplanes also hit power stations in the districts of Dhahaban, Asr, Hezyaz, and Attan area in Sanaa, it said.

The broadcaster said the strikes also hit a cement factory in Amran province near Sanaa.

It said at…