Author: Agencies And A News

Anti-regime groups entered Syria’s third city Homs late Saturday taking control of some districts, a war monitor said in a statement. The loss of Homs would be another major blow to the forces of regime leader Bahar al-Assad, as it lies at a strategic crossroads between Damascus and his stronghold on the Mediterranean coast. “Anti-regime factions entered the city of Homs and took control of some neighbourhoods after the withdrawal of security forces and the army from their last positions in the city,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Hundreds of detainees had…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at the 8th Ordinary Provincial Congress of the AK Party in Gaziantep, addressing recent developments in Syria. Erdoğan said Saturday he hopes neighbouring Syria “finds peace”, as anti-regime groups fighting to overthrow Bashar al-Assad closed in on the capital, Damascus. “Our wish is for our neighbour, Syria, to find the peace and tranquility it has been dreaming of for 13 years. Damascus regime couldn’t grasp value of hand extended by Türkiye and didn’t understand what it meant. Syria “s tired of war, blood and tears,” Erdoğan said in a statement. Here are highlights from…

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed Syria with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday and Fidan said the Syrian regime should enter dialogue with the opposition and initiate a political process, a foreign ministry source said. Fidan said in the phone call that all actors in the region should play a constructive role and that terrorist organisations such as PKK, Daesh/ISIS should not be allowed to benefit from the chaotic environment in Syria, the source said. Measures should also be taken to prevent chemical weapons possessed by the Assad regime from becoming a risk for the region and…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview aired late Thursday that Moscow hopes its “signal” to the West with the use of its Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile is “taken seriously.” “We don’t want to aggravate the situation (in Ukraine), but since ATACMS and other long-range weapons are being used against mainland Russia, we are sending signals. We hope that the last one, a couple of weeks ago, the signal with the new weapon system called Oreshnik, was taken seriously,” Lavrov said during an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson in Moscow. Saying that Ukraine would not be able…

Russia’s ambassador to the UK said Thursday that the war in Ukraine could have ended two years ago if then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had not thrown his support behind Kyiv. In an interview with LBC, Andrei Kelin said the suffering and misery caused by the Russia-Ukraine war has not been worth it. “We could have ended it in negotiations in April 2022” if not for Boris Johnson coming and saying “Let’s get out of this agreement, throw it away, and you should fight with the Ukrainians,” he added. Kelin said that Russia has “absolutely no ambition” to continue…

Work will continue on the BRICS settlement system despite U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to impose 100% import duties on countries that try to undermine the dollar, the RIA news agency cited a senior Russian official as saying on Friday. Trump last week demanded that BRICS member countries commit to not creating a new currency or supporting another currency that would replace the U.S. dollar, saying they would otherwise face 100% tariffs. RIA quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin as saying that BRICS was in fact working on a settlement system rather than a new international currency. “Of course,…

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that the recent escalation of the Syrian crisis is the “bitter fruits of a chronic collective failure of previous de-escalation.” Speaking at a news conference at its headquarters in New York, Guterres decried the resumption of hostilities, including a recent offensive by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group sanctioned by the Security Council, which has resulted in significant shifts in frontlines and placed tens of thousands of civilians in immediate danger “in a region already on fire.” “We are seeing the bitter fruits of a chronic collective failure of previous de-escalation arrangements to produce…

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) recent arrest warrants for Israeli leaders mark a pivotal shift in addressing Israel’s genocidal actions against Palestinians, opening a “new era” of accountability, says Palestinian human rights lawyer Raji Sourani. The ICC’s move against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who are now wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, is a “landmark” decision that signals the end of decades-long impunity for Israel, Sourani, founder of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, told Anadolu. “We are heading to a new era where Israel will be very aware about…

Lifting unilateral sanctions would stop migration flows from south to north, particularly to the US, said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. During a press conference in Caracas, Maduro addressed the migration issue, emphasizing the impact of economic restrictions. Maduro urged the US administration to reconsider its stance to ease the migration crisis. “If Venezuela overcomes its challenges and is freed from all economic sanctions, not a single migrant will head to the US within a year,” he said, adding: “We welcome all who wish to return voluntarily.” Despite sanctions, Maduro noted that Venezuela’s economy has grown for 14 consecutive quarters. He…

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) honoured on Tuesday journalists in war zones for their work under pressure and in dangerous conditions by naming the recipients of their annual Press Freedom Awards. The award in the category “Impact” was given to Ukrainian journalist Natalja Humenjuk, who, through her organization The Reckoning Project, has documented war crimes and focused on Russia’s responsibility for the deportation of Ukrainian children. This work led, among other things, to arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court against Russian President Vladimir Putin. At the presentation of the Press Freedom Awards in Washington, Wael al-Dahduh, head of Al Jazeera’s…