Syrian government forces and allied militiamen are advancing on the largest remaining rebel-held territory in the country’s north, forcing thousands of civilians to flee toward the border with Turkey in freezing winter temperatures.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad in a new year’s greeting that Russia will continue supporting Syria’s efforts to defend its sovereignty, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
The evacuation of several hundred Syrian rebels from the Beit Jinn area on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights over the weekend puts Israel in an old-new position on the border. Assad’s army is once again at the fences, just like it was from 1967 to 2011.
Hezbollah and Syrian army forces have reportedly launched an assault on a besieged Syrian rebels’ stronghold some 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) from Israel’s border, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel will not accept Iranian proxies on its frontier.
Russia has begun forming a ‘permanent presence’ at two military bases in Syria, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said.
Syrian army forces backed by Iranian-backed militias pushed deeper into the last rebel-held enclave near a strategic border area with Israel and Lebanon in a new expansion of Tehran’s influence in the war-torn country.
The Assad regime is gearing up to expand the area it controls in southern Syria, near the border with Israel.
yrian President Bashar al-Assad expressed regret for the stalemate of U.N.-brokered intra-Syrian talks in Geneva last week but says he expects better results during the Russian-sponsored Sochi peace process to be held in February.
Sophisticated weapons the U.S. military secretly provided to Syrian rebels ended up with the Islamic State, a study said Thursday.
Two US fighter jets on Wednesday fired warning flares after two Russian jets entered a buffer zone intended to keep Russian and US-led coalition forces operating over Syria apart.
Less than an hour after U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Palestinians protested by turning off the lights on the Christmas tree outside Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
The United States said on Tuesday it has not observed any meaningful withdrawal of Russian combat forces from Syria, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on Monday of a significant pullout.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory against ‘terrorists’ in Syria on Monday during a surprise visit to a Russian military base in the county, where he also announced a partial pullout of Russian troops.
An Iraqi military parade in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone celebrated final victory over Islamic State on Sunday, with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi looking on as troops marched in formation, their bodies spelling ‘victory day’ in Arabic.
Iran has virtually completed a ‘Shiite Crescent’ of influence across the heart of the Middle East, using a string of battlefield successes to link a network of allies and proxy forces now spanning from nation’s border with Iraq all the way to Lebanon.
Russia will help rebuild Christian churches in Syria and establish peace in historically Christian regions of the war-torn country, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed on Monday during a meeting with representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Israel’s military struck a Syrian military installation on the outskirts of Damascus late Monday night, according to initial reports.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to President Donald Trump by allowing his latest travel ban targeting people from six Muslim-majority countries to go into full effect even as legal challenges continue in lower courts.
The Israeli Air Force struck a military base near Damascus, Syrian state media reported Saturday. The site is believed to have been earmarked for use by Iranian forces in Syria and local militias loyal to them.
The head of a large Iranian-backed Iraqi militia that has been fighting in Syria said his group was ‘fully prepared’ to fight Israel if Damascus asked it to.