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  • From Gaza to the Syrian Border, Jordan Is Increasingly in the Line of Fire

    UNRWA in Jordan provides key services to more than 2 million registered Palestinian refugees in the kingdom. This includes services in ten refugee camps, in 169 schools serving 119,000 students, and in 25 medical clinics and other health centers. Jordanian officials therefore have urged the United States and other countries to reverse their funding freezes, especially now in the heat of the ongoing war in Gaza and the broader regional crises.

  • UN says 16.7m Syrians need humanitarian aid

    He pointed out that the earthquake in Turkiye was one of the most severe earthquakes the world has seen in a century, noting that the disaster claimed the lives of thousands of people in both Turkiye and Syria. However, he pointed out that the impact of the earthquake was much greater in Syria due to the ongoing civil war, emphasising the need to rebuild basic services and shelters.

  • Opinion: Here’s what an uncoordinated US withdrawal from Syria would look like. It’s bad for many partners, but especially Turkey.

    Reports have surfaced regarding the possibility of the United States withdrawing from Syria completely. Despite officials rejecting these reports and a recent vote in the US Senate exhibiting reluctance among lawmakers to leave Syria, news of a potential US exit has been closely monitored by regional actors. Turkey is among them. While Ankara may favor a future US withdrawal from Syria, it desires US coordination. An uncoordinated withdrawal by the United States could pose significant risks for Turkey, leaving the country alone against Iran and Russia.

  • US launches series of airstrikes in Iraq, Syria

    The U.S. military hit dozens of targets across Iraq and Syria on Friday and dozens more in Yemen on Saturday, targeting Iranian forces and Iran-backed militias. The strikes in Iraq and Syria were a direct reaction to an explosive drone attack Sunday that killed three American soldiers and wounded more than 40 others at a remote base in Jordan. Those targets included facilities for Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force, as well as infrastructure for Iran-backed militias that operate collectively as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.

  • Israel says it has struck more than 50 Hezbollah targets in Syria since Oct 7

    The Israeli military said on Saturday that since the outbreak of the Gaza war on Oct. 7 it had struck more than 50 targets in Syria linked to the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah. The remarks, in a briefing by chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari that mainly discussed efforts to beat back Hezbollah attacks launched in solidarity with Hamas, were a departure from Israel's usual reticence about Syria operations. "Everywhere Hezbollah is, we shall be. We will take action everywhere required in the Middle East," Hagari said.

  • Iran’s Guards pull officers from Syria after Israeli strikes

    Iran's Revolutionary Guards have scaled back deployment of their senior officers in Syria due to a spate of deadly Israeli strikes and will rely more on allied Shi'ite militia to preserve their sway there, five sources familiar with the matter said. The Guards have suffered one of their most bruising spells in Syria since arriving a decade ago to aid President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian war. Since December, Israeli strikes have killed more than half a dozen of their members, among them one of the Guards' top intelligence generals.

  • Gulf thaw with Syria gains steam: UAE sends envoy, Saudi diplomats plan visit

    The restoration of diplomatic ties between Arab Gulf countries and Syria is currently witnessing renewed impetus more than a decade after President Bashar al-Assad’s regional isolation due to his government’s brutal crackdown of peaceful anti-regime protests. A delegation of Saudi diplomats is reportedly heading to Damascus later this week, days after the UAE dispatched its first ambassador to the Syrian capital in more than 10 years. The pro-government Syrian Al-Watan newspaper said in a Wednesday report that Saudi charge d'affaires Abdullah al-Haris, along with several other diplomats, will arrive in Damascus on Saturday to resume Saudi consular services. Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2024/01/gulf-thaw-syria-gains-steam-uae-sends-envoy-saudi-diplomats-plan-visit#ixzz8QV41JpbP

  • Saudi Arabia gives Assad regime control over Hajj file, removing it from Syria opposition

    The decision by Saudi Arabia to hand over the authority to the Syrian regime comes over a decade after the Kingdom gave the responsibility to the Syrian opposition’s Supreme Hajj Committee in May 2013, following the closure of the Saudi embassy in Damascus and the withdrawal of Saudi diplomats in response to the Assad regime’s brutal crackdown on peaceful protests and the outbreak of the ongoing Syrian civil war.

  • Jordanian army says five killed in battle to stop Syrian drug smugglers

    Jordan's army said on Saturday that five drug and weapons smugglers linked to Iranian militias operating in southern Syria had been killed after infiltrating from Syria.

    The kingdom has promised to respond to what it says is an alarming rise in such incursions, accusing Syria of failing to stem Iranian-run smuggling networks.

    Jordanian officials, like their Western allies, say the operations are controlled by Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah group and other pro-Iranian militias who control much of southern Syria after supporting President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war that has lasted almost 13 years.

  • Syria regime appoints new envoy to Saudi Arabia following 11-year absence

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has appointed a new envoy to Saudi Arabia following an 11-year absence, amid a recent thaw in relations between the regime and Riyadh.

    Deputy Foreign Minister Ayman Soussan was appointed with the role according to Syria’s state-run news agency SANA, and was subsequently sworn in during a ceremony attended by Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad.

    The move comes as ties between Syria and Saudi Arabia were restored earlier this year, after Riyadh severed its ties with Damascus in 2012 over the country’s devastating civil war, in which the Assad regime led the brutal suppression of peaceful protesters.