Lebanon, Syria leaders commit to managing border incidents

In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, left, meets with Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa during the emergency Arab summit at Egypt's New Administrative Capital, just outside Cairo, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (AP)
In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, left, meets with Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa during the emergency Arab summit at Egypt's New Administrative Capital, just outside Cairo, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 05 March 2025
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Lebanon, Syria leaders commit to managing border incidents

Lebanon, Syria leaders commit to managing border incidents
  • Hezbollah lost its key supply route from backer Iran through Syria after Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) rebels ousted Assad

CAIRO: Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun held talks Tuesday with his Syrian counterpart Ahmed Al-Sharaa on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Cairo, during which the pair agreed on containing incidents along their shared border.

Syria shares a 330-kilometer (205-mile) border with Lebanon, with no official demarcation at various points, rendering it porous and prone to smuggling.

Syria and Lebanon have a fraught history of conflict and violence, with the ouster in December of Assad after five decades of rule by his clan, offering an opening for a new start.

Aoun’s January 9 election ended a two-year-long presidential vacuum in Lebanon, after Hezbollah, long the country’s dominant force, suffered staggering losses in a war with Israel.

Hezbollah also lost its key supply route from backer Iran through Syria after Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) rebels ousted Assad.

Sharaa then became Syria’s interim president.

“President Aoun and Syria’s President Sharaa tackled several issues,” the Lebanese presidency said on X Tuesday, adding that they agreed on “the need to control the border between the two countries.”

While Aoun and Sharaa had spoken by phone in February, Tuesday marked their first in-person meeting.

Syria’s new authorities announced last month the launch of a security campaign in the border province of Homs, aimed at shutting down arms and goods smuggling routes.

They accused Hezbollah of launching attacks, saying it was sponsoring cross-border smuggling gangs.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, the security campaign targeted drug smugglers and operators from the area with links to Hezbollah.

Hezbollah fought side by side with Assad’s troops after intervening in the Syrian civil war, which the ousted leader sparked by cracking down on democracy protests in 2011.

 

 


28 Palestinians including children killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza

28 Palestinians including children killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza
Updated 8 sec ago
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28 Palestinians including children killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza

28 Palestinians including children killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza
  • Israeli military says that over the past 48 hours, troops struck approximately 250 targets in the Gaza Strip
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israeli airstrikes killed at least 28 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including four children, hospital officials said Saturday.
The children and two women were among at least 13 people who were killed in Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, after Israeli airstrikes pounded the area starting late Friday, officials in Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Hospital said. Another four people were killed in strikes near a fuel station, and 15 others died in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital.
The Israeli military said in a statement that over the past 48 hours, troops struck approximately 250 targets in the Gaza Strip, including militants, booby-trapped structures, weapons storage facilities, anti-tank missile launch posts, sniper posts, tunnels and additional Hamas infrastructure sites. The military did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment on the civilian deaths.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and abducted 251. They still hold 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.
US President Donald Trump has said that he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war. But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there were no signs of a breakthrough.

Syria denies ‘escalatory intentions’ towards Lebanon: sources

Syria denies ‘escalatory intentions’ towards Lebanon: sources
Updated 40 min 41 sec ago
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Syria denies ‘escalatory intentions’ towards Lebanon: sources

Syria denies ‘escalatory intentions’ towards Lebanon: sources
  • A source said the Syrian government considers the issue of Syrian detainees in Lebanese prisons a top priority
  • Syrian authorities have accused Lebanon of procrastination to repatriate its imprisoned nationals

DUBAI: The Syrian government has denied reports that Damascus intends to take escalatory measures against Beirut over the case of Syrian prisoners in Lebanon, sources said on Friday.

A source from Syria’s Ministry of Information said the Syrian government considers the issue of Syrian detainees in Lebanese prisons a top priority, adding that it is committed to resolving it swiftly through official channels between the two countries.

Sources close to the Syrian government were previously quoted by a television channel saying Damascus was considering diplomatic and economic escalation against Beirut.

The source claimed Damascus was considering the escalation over what it described as Lebanon’s disregard to the fate of Syrian detainees in Lebanese prisons, which an unnamed official related to the Syrian information ministry also denied.

Syrian authorities have accused Lebanon of procrastination to repatriate about one third of more than 2,000 of its imprisoned nationals.

The fate of the Syrian prisoners has irritated Damascus given that Lebanon had announced in March that it was ready to repatriate them.


New page opened for Turkiye following PKK disarmament, Erdogan says

New page opened for Turkiye following PKK disarmament, Erdogan says
Updated 12 July 2025
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New page opened for Turkiye following PKK disarmament, Erdogan says

New page opened for Turkiye following PKK disarmament, Erdogan says
  • Today is a new day; a new page has opened in history, Erdogan said
  • Thirty PKK militants burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that a new page opened for Turkiye following the start of a weapons handover by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.

“As of yesterday, the scourge of terrorism has entered the process of ending. Today is a new day; a new page has opened in history. Today, the doors of a great, powerful Turkiye have been flung wide open,” Erdogan said.

Thirty PKK militants burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday, marking a symbolic but significant step toward ending a decades-long insurgency against Turkiye.


Gaza truce talks faltering over withdrawal, Palestinian and Israeli sources say

Gaza truce talks faltering over withdrawal, Palestinian and Israeli sources say
Updated 21 min 46 sec ago
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Gaza truce talks faltering over withdrawal, Palestinian and Israeli sources say

Gaza truce talks faltering over withdrawal, Palestinian and Israeli sources say
  • Hamas wants Israel to retreat to lines it held in a previous ceasefire before it renewed its offensive in March
  • US envoy Steve Witkoff, who played a major role in crafting the latest ceasefire proposal, will travel to Doha this week to join discussions

CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza are stalling over the extent of Israeli forces’ withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources familiar with the negotiations in Doha said on Saturday.

The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are nonetheless expected to continue, the sources said, despite the latest obstacles in clinching a deal.

A Palestinian source said that Hamas has rejected the withdrawal maps which Israel has proposed, as they would leave around 40 percent of the territory under Israeli control, including all of the southern area of Rafah and further territories in northern and eastern Gaza.

Two Israeli sources said Hamas wants Israel to retreat to lines it held in a previous ceasefire before it renewed its offensive in March.

The Palestinian source said matters regarding aid and guarantees for ending the war were also presenting a challenge, and added that the crisis may be resolved with more US intervention.

The White House said on Monday that Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, who played a major role in crafting the latest ceasefire proposal, will travel to Doha this week to join discussions there.

Delegations from Israel and Hamas have been in Qatar since Sunday in a renewed push for an agreement which envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals and discussions on ending the war entirely.

Hamas has long demanded an end to the war before it would free remaining hostages; Israel has insisted it would end the fighting only when all hostages are released and Hamas is dismantled.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages there are believed to still be alive.

Israel’s subsequent campaign against Hamas has since killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, displaced almost the entire population of more than 2 million people, sparked a humanitarian crisis and left much of the territory in ruins.


‘All our crew are Muslim,’ fearful Red Sea ships tell Houthis

‘All our crew are Muslim,’ fearful Red Sea ships tell Houthis
Updated 12 July 2025
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‘All our crew are Muslim,’ fearful Red Sea ships tell Houthis

‘All our crew are Muslim,’ fearful Red Sea ships tell Houthis
  • Increasingly desperate messages from commercial vessels trying to avoid attack by Yemen militia

LONDON: Commercial ships sailing through the Red Sea are broadcasting increasingly desperate messages on public channels to avoid being attacked by the Houthi militia in Yemen.

One message read “All Crew Muslim,” some included references to an all-Chinese crew and management, others flagged the presence of armed guards on board, and almost all insisted the ships had no connection to Israel.

Maritime security sources said the messages were a sign of growing desperation to avoid attack, but were unlikely to make any difference. Houthi intelligence preparation was “much deeper and forward-leaning,” one source said.

Houthi attacks off Yemen’s coast began in November 2023 in what the group said was in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war. A lull this year ended when they sank two ships last week and killed four crew. Vessels in the fleets of both ships had made calls to Israeli ports in the past year.

“Seafarers are the backbone of global trade, keeping countries supplied with food, fuel and medicine. They should not have to risk their lives to do their job,” the Seafarers' Charity.