Reports that Iran is building workshops and facilities to make advanced rockets inside Lebanon is a “huge development” that constitutes a “whole new kind of threat,” Chagai Tzuriel, director- general of the Intelligence Ministry, said Monday.
Russia has sent a clear message to Israel that the rules of the game have changed in Syria and its freedom to act in Syrian skies is over, Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations said on Sunday night.
Israel is said to have struck Syria overnight Sunday-Monday, the second strike in 24 hours and third in three days as tensions escalated between the two countries over the weekend.
Russia on Friday summoned Israeli Ambassador Gary Koren to justify Israel’s air strike in Syria at a target near the city of Palmyra.
Russia and the United States were headed for a clash at the UN Security Council on Tuesday as Moscow prepared to veto a draft resolution that would impose sanctions on Syria.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked US President Donald Trump on Wednesday to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, territory Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.
Iran, Russia and Turkey will establish a trilateral mechanism to observe and ensure full compliance with the ceasefire in Syria, prevent any provocations and determine exactly how the ceasefire will work, the three nations said in a joint statement.
Russia announced on Friday that it is withdrawing its aircraft carrier and some other Russian warships from the waters off Syria as the first step in a drawdown of its forces in the war-torn Mideast country.
The major players involved in the long-running Syrian conflict have agreed to a cease-fire set to begin at midnight on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier in the day.
Russia threatened Sunday to veto a U.N. resolution demanding immediate access to areas of Aleppo besieged by the Syrian government, while a shaky deal to evacuate thousands of trapped civilians was thrown into doubt again after militants burned buses involved in the rescue operation.
The rout of Syrian rebels by the Russian-backed forces of President Bashar Assad in the city of Aleppo likely marks the beginning of the end of the civil war that has ravaged the country for more than 5 years and led to the unprecedented slaughter of hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped by the fighting.
The Syrian army and its allies made key gains in the embattled city of Aleppo late on Tuesday. President Bashar al-Assad’s forces pushed into rebel-held areas of the Old City, essentially driving opposition forces out of their last urban stronghold.
According to Syrian state television, Israel was behind the overnight air raids just west of Damascus.
Israel is in “close contact” with Moscow, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, the day Russia launched a major new offensive in Syria.
Russia launched new strikes in Syria on Tuesday involving carrier-borne jets and long-range missiles as opposition activists on the ground reported that the first airstrikes in nearly a month struck the besieged, rebel-held parts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
A flotilla of Russian warships is now in the eastern Mediterranean off the Syrian coast after being sent to reinforce Russia’s military in the area, a naval commander said on state television.
Russia is preparing to carry out a new round of strikes targeting Syria from a group of warships that recently arrived in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, two U.S. defense officials told Fox News on Wednesday.
A federal judge called out the Obama administration over the lack of Christian refugees being allowed into the United States from war-torn Syria.
The British Royal Navy and NATO tracked three Russian submarines through the English channel that were en route to the Mediterranean to join forces with an aircraft carrier group.
Russia could shoot down a US aircraft if a no-fly zone were imposed over Syria, National Intelligence Director James Clapper said Tuesday.