Tag Archives: civil war

In an exclusive interview with Arab News on Wednesday, the head of Lebanon’s Maronite church, Bechara Al-Rai, called for all of the many political factions in the country — which has just marked its centenary — to support his call to adopt ‘active neutrality,’ describing it as “part of the …

Turkish and Russian officials will meet in Ankara this week for a new round of talks on developments in Syria and Libya, where the two countries back opposing sides, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday. “Consultations between Turkish and Russian interagency delegations on Libya and Syria will continue at a …

Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker said his group opposed the way the prime minister-designate was forming a new cabinet and that it would not join on those terms, but that he would still cooperate to stabilise the nation in crisis, his office said. The office of Nabih Berri, head of the Muslim …

Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar has committed to ending a months-long blockade of oil facilities, the U.S. embassy in the country said in a statement on Saturday, but it was unclear if oil fields and ports would reopen. The statement said the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) had conveyed “the personal …

At the center of Yemen’s capital Sanaa, a city battered by years of war and months of pandemic, a row of young girls in red, white and black white uniforms pummel punching bags and practice self defense. In the corner a mother looks on in pride as a female instructor …

A large fire erupted at Beirut port on Thursday, sending a huge column of smoke over the Lebanese capital weeks after a massive blast devastated the port and surrounding residential area. The blaze began in the shattered duty free zone of the port, prompting some residents to flee the city …

It is necessary to implement a unified Arab policy towards Turkey’s destructive actions in the Arab region, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Wednesday during his Arab League ministerial committee meeting. Shoukry said Turkey’s practices and interference in multiple Arab countries’ internal affairs shape threats against the Arab national security. …

The Houthi administration in Yemen has suspended all United Nations and humanitarian flights to the capital Sanaa as its Saudi-led coalition foe blocks commercial vessels in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah. The Iran-aligned Houthis took over Sanaa and most cities in 2014 after ousting the Saudi-backed government of Abd-Rabbu …

A military spokesman for Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said that the group targeted Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport with a number of drones. Yahya Sarea wrote on Twitter “the continuous attack of the drones on Abha International Airport led to disabling it for several hours”. In related developments a Yemeni court in …

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Damascus on Monday for talks with President Bashar al-Assad and Syria’s foreign minister, the RIA news agency reported. Following his meeting with the Syrian president Lavrov said that Syria needed international help to rebuild its economy. For his part Syrian President Bashar al Assad …

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman sacked two royals and referred them along with four military officers for investigation into corruption at the defence ministry in a royal decree issued early on Tuesday and carried by state media. The decree said Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Abdulaziz Al Saud would be removed …

Two people were killed and at least three wounded in clashes in a town south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on Thursday evening, the state news agency and a security source said, as several political parties urged calm. The Lebanese army said on its Twitter account that it had deployed …

A small number of U.S. troops were injured during an interaction with Russian forces in Syria, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday. While such interactions between American and Russian forces are not rare, the incident highlights the risks of troops from both countries operating in close proximity in northern …

A Russian armoured vehicle was attacked during a joint Russian-Turkish patrol in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, Russia’s Defence Ministry said, according to the Interfax news agency, adding that two servicemen had been injured. Turkey’s Defence Ministry said on Twitter a convoy vehicle had been lightly damaged due to an explosion …

Armed men fired in the air to disperse several hundred protesters demonstrating over living conditions and against the government in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on Sunday, a Reuters witness said. Protesters marched to the headquarters of the Government of National Accord (GNA) to voice anger over what they called a …

An explosion on the Arab Gas Pipeline -a natural gas pipeline originating in Arish in the Sinai Peninsula was built to export Egyptian natural gas to Jordan, and Syria – has caused a power blackout in Syria and initial indications point to an attack, the energy minister told state-run television …

Israel’s military said on Saturday that one of its drones fell inside Lebanon during “operational activity” along the frontier, and the armed Lebanese group Hezbollah said it shot it down. The drone, which was downed near the border town of Aita al-shaab, was now in the group’s possession, the Iran-backed …

Syrian President Bashar al Assad said on Wednesday that sweeping new U.S. sanctions amounted to a new stage of economic warfare against his government and were part of long-standing U.S. efforts to “choke” the living standards of Syrians. In a speech to deputies at the presidential palace, Assad also blamed …

Armed men attacked a village in Sudan’s South Darfur province causing an unknown number of casualties, a tribal chief said Saturday, in the latest violence to strike the remote region. “Armed men on Friday attacked the village of Oringa, south of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state,” Yaakoub Mohammad …

Saudi Arabia has presented a framework to expedite a stalled November deal in Yemen’s south designed to end a standoff between nominal allies under a Saudi-led coalition, Saudi state news agency SPA said on Wednesday. Riyadh is seeking to unite separatist and government forces in Yemen’s south to concentrate their …

Syrian businessman Rami Makhlouf revealed on Sunday he had set up a web of offshore front companies to help President Bashar al Assad evade Western sanctions, in a social media post blasting the government for investigating his business empire. One of Syria’s richest and most powerful businessmen, Makhlouf said security …

A Hezbollah fighter was killed in an Israeli attack in Syria, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi’ite group’s first declared casualty there since its leader warned last year that further killings of its members in Syria would face retaliation. Ali Kamel Mohsen, from south Lebanon, was killed by an Israeli air strike …

Syria held a parliamentary election on Sunday, gripped by a collapsing economy and new U.S. sanctions after President Bashar al-Assad clawed back control of most of the country. People voted across government territory at more than 7,000 polling stations, including for the first time in former rebel bastions that the …

The leaders of France, Germany and Italy on Saturday threatened for the first time to use sanctions against countries that continued to violate a United Nations arms embargo on Libya. French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte urged “all foreign actors to end …

Egypt will not stand idle in the face of any direct threat to Egyptian and Libyan security, President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said on Thursday, after lawmakers allied to commander Khalifa Haftar urged Cairo to intervene militarily in Libya’s civil war. Tribal leaders who flew in from Haftar’s Benghazi stronghold told Sisi …

Libya’s eastern-based parliament has called for Egypt to directly intervene in the country’s civil war to counter Turkish support for the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), based in the capital Tripoli. In a statement late on Monday, the House of Representatives based in the eastern port of Tobruk …

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed in a phone call to work more closely in Libya to ensure lasting stability in the country, the Turkish presidency said on Tuesday. Turkey supports the internationally recognised Government of National Accord in Libya, which is fighting against the eastern-based …

Using money with demurrage; The US dollar with demurrage. IT’S NOT POSSIBLE. Only using the hoardable form of money do The Civil Wars continue to get financed; paid for. It’s been happening like that for hundreds and even thousands of years. Defending the hard earned wealth of homes and towns …

Yemen’s Saudi-Led coalition said on Monday it intercepted and destroyed four missiles and six explosive drones launched overnight by Houthi forces towards the kingdom. Cross-border attacks by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement have escalated since late May when a truce prompted by the novel coronavirus expired. In late June, missiles reached …

Several explosions have been heard over the Syrian coastal town of Jabla, state TV reported on Saturday. No further details were immediately available. Source: Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday that U.S. and partner forces seized a boat in June carrying Iranian weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen as he renewed his call for the U.N. Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Iran. “The Security Council must extend the …

A bomb attack by the Kurdish YPG militia killed six people and wounded 11 on Tuesday in the northeastern Syrian town of Tel Abyad, near the Turkish border, the Turkish Defence Ministry said. The Arab town, from which Turkish-backed forces last October pushed out the YPG militia in a major …

Syrian and Russian planes have carried out deadly aerial strikes on schools, hospitals and markets in Idlib province that amount to war crimes, U.N. investigators said on Tuesday in a report that also condemned attacks by Islamist militants. They said that “indiscriminate bombardment” by pro-government forces, ahead of a March …

Lebanon’s Christian authorities slammed politicians on Sunday for failing to remedy an economic meltdown that has left many poor, piling pressure on the country’s leaders as it spirals deeper into crisis. In a sermon, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, the top Christian cleric, accused politicians of thinking only of their …

A Saudi-led coalition has started a military operation against Yemen’s Houthi movement after it stepped up cross-border missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, Saudi state television reported on Wednesday. In Yemen, Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported air strikes on the capital Sanaa, Marib, al-Jouf, al-Bayda, Hajjah and Saada provinces …

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and southern separatist forces have agreed on a ceasefire and will begin talks in Saudi Arabia on implementing a peace deal, the Saudi-led coalition said on Monday. The government, based in the southern port of Aden, and the separatists are nominal allies in the Saudi-led coalition, which …

Saudi Arabia has proposed a framework to end the latest standoff in southern Yemen between nominal allies under a Saudi-led coalition, three sources said, as violence escalates with the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in the north of the country. Previous clashes between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and the Southern Transitional Council (STC), …

Turkey and Libya’s internationally recognised government are discussing possible Turkish use of two military bases in the North African country, a Turkish source said on Monday, teeing up a lasting Turkish presence in the south Mediterranean. No final decisions have been made over possible Turkish military use of the Misrata …

Afghanistan’s government and the Islamist Taliban group have agreed that Doha will be the venue for the first meeting in their peace talks, both sides said on Sunday. The talks, known as the intra-Afghan dialogue, will be the first high-level meeting between the two sides after years of fighting. No …

Southern separatists in Yemen seized a consignment of billions of riyals intended for the central bank in Aden on Saturday, in a further attempt to wrench control from the Saudi-backed government since declaring self rule in the south in April. Forces loyal to the Southern Transitional Council (STC), which declared …

Russia and Turkey have postponed ministerial-level talks which were expected to focus on Libya and Syria, where the two countries support opposing sides in long-standing conflicts. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov decided to put off the talks during a phone call on Sunday, the …

A Russian drive to recruit Syrians to fight in Libya for militia leader Khalifa Haftar accelerated in May when hundreds of mercenaries were signed up, five Syrian opposition sources and a regional source familiar with the matter said. Private military contractor Wagner Group is conducting the hiring with Russian army …

Forces loyal to Libya’s internationally recognised government said on Friday they had entered Tarhouna, the last major stronghold of eastern commander Khalifa Haftar near Tripoli, capping the sudden collapse of his 14-month offensive. There was no immediate comment from Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) on whether its forces remained in …

Libya’s internationally recognised government regained control of Tripoli on Thursday, driving eastern forces out of the capital after a year-long battle in which foreign powers poured in arms and fighters. A military source with the eastern forces, whose base is in the eastern city of Benghazi, said they were pulling …