JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said that it carried out air strikes on Wednesday along the border with Syria and Lebanon, with state media in Damascus saying that key infrastructure had been targeted.
A leading monitor said that 15 people had been wounded in the strikes in an area of Syria’s Homs region which is a known stronghold of Lebanon’s Hezbollah although there was no immediate confirmation from Syrian authorities.
Israel rarely comments on its military operations in Syria but it did confirm the strikes which had been first reported by the Syrian state news agency Sana.
“Earlier today, with the direction of IDF (military) intelligence, the IAF (Israeli airforce) struck smuggling routes between Syria and Lebanon,” the army said in a statement.
“These routes coming from the Syrian side of the border into Lebanon are used to smuggle weapons to the Hezbollah terrorist organization.”
The Sana news agency said that “the Israeli aggression” on the Homs region had been met with a barrage of anti-aircraft fire.
Citing a military source, Sana said that the Israeli planes had targeted bridges along the Orontes river and roads around the Syria-Lebanon border.
The strikes had caused “significant damage,” according to the source, putting some of the infrastructure out of action, without giving details.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor also said that Israeli military aircraft had hit Syrian bridges and military checkpoints.
Fifteen members of the Syrian armed forces or allied groups had been wounded in the strikes, said the observatory which has a vast network of contacts throughout Syria.
But since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, it has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syrian government forces and groups supported by its arch-foe Iran, notably Hezbollah troops that have been deployed to assist Assad’s regime.
Israel has carried out frequent raids on highways on the Lebanese side of the border with Syria to cut off potential weapons supplies since a major escalation of its conflict with Hezbollah in September.
Israeli airforce bombs Syria-Lebanon border
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Israeli airforce bombs Syria-Lebanon border
- A leading monitor said that 15 people had been wounded in the strikes in an area of Syria’s Homs region
- “Earlier today, with the direction of IDF (military) intelligence, the IAF (Israeli airforce) struck smuggling routes between Syria and Lebanon,” the army said
Syrian president to make first official visit to Kuwait
CAIRO: Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa will make his first official visit to Kuwait on Sunday accompanied by an official delegation.
“Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, accompanied by an official delegation, is due to arrive in Kuwait on Sunday,” read a statement on KUNA News Agency.
Earlier this month, sources close to Al-Sharaa have reported that the Syrian president was planning a strip to the gulf state in the end of May.
On his gulf tour, Al-Sharaa had visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
On his trip to Kuwait, the Syrian president will meet the Kuwaiti leadership to discuss ways to boost bilateral relations.
Iran considers nuclear weapons ‘unacceptable’, FM says
- Iran has held five rounds of talks with the United States in search of a new nuclear agreement
- Western governments have long suspected Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability
TEHRAN: Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Saturday that Iran considers nuclear weapons “unacceptable,” reiterating the country’s longstanding position amid delicate negotiations with the United States.
Western governments have long suspected Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability to counter widely suspected but undeclared arsenal of its arch-foe Israel.
“If the issue is nuclear weapons, yes, we too consider this type of weapon unacceptable,” Araghchi, Iran’s lead negotiator in the talks, said in a televised speech. “We agree with them on this issue.”
Iran has held five rounds of talks with the United States in search of a new nuclear agreement to replace the deal with major powers President Donald Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The two governments are at odds over Iran’s uranium enrichment program, which Washington has said must cease but which Tehran insists is its right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Nonetheless, Trump said Wednesday that “we’re having some very good talks with Iran,” adding that he had warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against striking its nuclear facilities as it would not be “appropriate right now.”
Israel has repeatedly threatened military action, after pummelling Iranian air defenses during two exchanges of fire last year.
Trump has not ruled out military action but said he wants space to make a deal first, and has also said that Israel, and not the United States, would take the lead in any such strikes.
Israel strike on south Lebanon kills one
- The Israeli army said the strike killed a regional commander “of Hezbollah’s rocket array"
BEIRUT: Lebanese official media said an Israeli strike killed one person in the south on Saturday despite a six-month-old ceasefire, as Israel said it targeted a Hezbollah militant.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said a man was killed when an Israeli drone targeted his car as he was heading to pray at a mosque in Deir Al-Zahrani, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Israeli border.
Israel has continued to bomb Lebanon despite the November 27 truce that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of open war.
The Israeli army said the strike killed a regional commander “of Hezbollah’s rocket array.”
It charged that during the conflict, the operative “advanced numerous projectile attacks... and was involved recently in efforts to reestablish Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure” in south Lebanon.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah fighters were to pull back north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle military infrastructure to its south.
Israel was to withdraw all forces from Lebanon but it has kept troops in five areas it deems “strategic.”
The Lebanese army has deployed in the south and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure.
Syrian Kurdish commander in touch with Turkiye, open to meeting Erdogan
BEIRUT: The commander of Kurdish forces that control northeast Syria said on Friday that his group is in direct contact with Turkiye and that he would be open to improving ties, including by meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
The public comments represented a significant diplomatic overture by Mazloum Abdi, whose Syrian Democratic Forces fought Turkish troops and Ankara-backed Syrian rebels during Syria’s 14-year civil war.
Turkiye has said the main Kurdish group at the core of the SDF is indistinguishable from the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which decided earlier this month to disband after 40 years of conflict with Turkiye.
Abdi told regional broadcaster Shams TV in an interview aired on Friday that his group was in touch with Turkiye, without saying how long the communication channels had been open.
“We have direct ties, direct channels of communication with Turkiye, as well as through mediators, and we hope that these ties are developed,” Abdi said. There was no immediate comment from Turkiye on Abdi’s remarks.
He noted his forces and Turkish fighters “fought long wars against each other” but that a temporary truce had brought a halt to those clashes for the last two months. Abdi said he hoped the truce could become permanent.
When asked whether he was planning to meet Erdogan, Abdi said he had no current plans to do so but “I am not opposed... We are not in a state of war with Turkiye and in the future, ties could be developed between us. We’re open to this.”
The Al-Monitor news website reported on Friday that Turkiye had proposed a meeting between Abdi and a top Turkish official, possibly Turkiye’s foreign minister or its intelligence chief.
A Turkish diplomatic source denied the report, saying “the claims about Turkiye and our country’s authorities” in the story were “not true,” without elaborating.
In December, Turkiye and the SDF agreed on a US-mediated ceasefire after fighting broke out as rebel groups advanced on Damascus and overthrew Bashar Assad.
Abdi in March signed a deal with Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to incorporate the semi-autonomous administration of northeast Syria into the main state institutions based in Damascus.
On Thursday, Erdogan accused the SDF of “stalling” implementation of that deal.
In the interview, Abdi denied accusations that the SDF was in contact with Israel.
“People have accused us of this. In this interview, I am saying publicly that we have no ties with Israel,” he said.
But he said his group supported good ties with Syria’s neighbors. When asked if that included Israel, Abdi responded, “with everyone.”
Israel blocks Ramallah meeting with Arab ministers, Israeli official says
- Palestinian Authority official says that the issue of whether the meeting in Ramallah would be able to go ahead is under discussion
- The move comes ahead of an international conference due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood
JERUSALEM: Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, to go ahead, an Israeli official said on Saturday, after media reported that Arab ministers planning to attend had been stopped from coming.
The delegation included ministers from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Palestinian Authority officials said. The ministers would require Israeli consent to travel to the West Bank from Jordan.
An Israeli official said the ministers intended to take part in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel,” the official said. “Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”
A Palestinian Authority official said that the issue of whether the meeting in Ramallah would be able to go ahead was under discussion.
The move comes ahead of an international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood.
Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries which favor a two-state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict, under which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that recognizing a Palestinian state was not only a “moral duty but a political necessity.”
