Boudewijn van Eenennaam, head of the UN refugee agency's governing body, on Thursday attended the signing of a landmark contract between UNHCR and the International Medical Corps (IMC), paving the way for the aid agency to become the first international...
Two days of violence have erupted in Lebanon, weeks afer the Lebanese Army became aware of and sought to stem the infiltration by insurgents from Syria.
"There are hundreds of terrorists flowing into Lebanon, and until now little was done," a...
Turkish officials are moving to convene a three-way meeting with Israeli and Syrian representatives, with İstanbul the most likely setting, in an effort to jump-start peace negotiations between the two countries, Israeli media reported yesterday,...
Israel said on Monday that "preliminary work" has been carried out towards resuming long frozen peace talks with Syria.
"We don't just want to restart only a process of negotiations, we want to start a political dialogue," government spokesman...
The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has reportedly discussed a draft bill presented by Republican senator John Cornyn that called for "punishing Syria and liberating it."
The daily Al Mustaqbal, which carried the report, said the draft...
Lebanon began an investigation Monday into allegations that the militant Hezbollah group set up surveillance cameras near the Beirut airport to monitor the comings and goings of anti-Syria Lebanese politicians and foreign dignitaries.
The charges...
Hizbullah has linked its private telephone networks to the Syrian Army's communications system as well as to Syria's mobile telephone network allowing Syrian intelligence to operate freely in Lebanon and avoid Lebanese controls, al-Mustaqbal's Faris...
An Israeli rabbi visited the Jewish community of Syria.
Yisrael Meir Gabbai, a fervently Orthodox rabbi who holds Israeli and French passports, traveled to Syria on the latter last month.
Gabbai told the religious newspaper Hamodia that he...
A Turkish initiative to lay the groundwork for negotiations between Israel and Syria was approved by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, officials in Jerusalem told Israel’s Army Radio.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Syrian...
The International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday it would investigate US claims that Syria had tried to build a nuclear reactor with North Korean help, but "deplored" the delay in handing over the evidence to its inspectors.
The IAEA director...
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has assured Syria that Israel is ready to return all of the Golan Heights, reports said on Wednesday amid renewed peace feelers between the bitter foes.
"Mr Erdogan telephoned President Bashar al-Assad...
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said here Wednesday that Iran and Syria enjoy amicable and growing relations in all fields.
Addressing a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Moualem, Mottaki added that economic cooperation...
US intelligence officials will brief the Congress members on Thursday about their findings on a possible North Korea-Syria nuclear link.
The CIA believes that the North Koreans were helping Syria to build a nuclear reactor last year. The alleged...
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a warning to Syria on Thursday not to side with the Americans.
"We must always be prepared to thwart the plans of the US in the region," Ahmadinejad told Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem in Teheran....
Syria on Thursday dismissed U.S. accusations that North Korea was helping it build a nuclear reactor that could produce plutonium.
Syria's ambassador to Britain, Sami al-Khiyami, told Reuters that the accusation, which President George W. Bush's...
Egypt and Saudi Arabia, in implicit criticism of Syria, said on Wednesday better relations with Damascus depended on an end to the political crisis in Lebanon.
"We call things by their names, in that Saudi-Egyptian relations with sister Syria...
An Iranian source says that Syria has arrested "a security figure from the Saudi Embassy in Damascus" who played a central role in the assassination of senior Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniya.
According to the source, the Saudi was helped by...
Syria is beefing up security on its home front in a sign of escalating tension with Israel. As Robert Berger reports from VOA's Jerusalem bureau, there are war jitters on both sides of the border.
As Israel conducts a big civil-defense drill...
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora on Sunday accused Syria of holding Lebanon hostage by blocking the election of a new president, following talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Siniora told reporters he saw the Lebanese-Syrian relationship...
Agreement to establish petroleum refinery part of plans to bolster cooperation between countries in oil and gas industry.
According to the SANA report, the refinery will have a daily refining capacity of 100,000 barrels of crude oil and...
A "criminal network" of individuals acted together to carry out the 2005 murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, a UN report confirmed Friday, insisting that suspects would be named only when there was sufficient evidence.
The interim report...
Syria on Saturday plays host to the Arab summit, boycotted this year by half of the Arab world's leaders who blame Damascus for the political crisis in Lebanon.
The leaders of US allies Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan will not be attending, an...
A Cabinet minister said Friday that Israel was trying to bring Syria back to the negotiating table eight years after talks between the two countries broke down.
The disclosure of Israeli efforts to engage Syria in negotiations comes at a time...
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana called Sunday for international pressure on Syria so that it allows Lebanon to elect a new president before an Arab summit on March 29-30.
"The pressure on Syria has to grow in order to solve at least the...
Twenty-three students were killed Friday when their school bus rammed into a house in northern Syria, killing another person in a crash that injured 34, Syria's news agency and a hospital official said.
The accident occurred on a road liking the...
Israel recently conveyed a warning to Syria through a third party that it would hold Damascus accountable if Lebanese Hezbollah launched attacks on the Jewish state, Israeli and European sources said on Friday.
The sources, speaking on condition...
23 illegal immigrants were arrested by police in Dhekelia on Saturday.
It is believed a further 20 or so managed to elude capture between Achna forest and Xylotymbou.
According to The Cyprus Mail newspaper, between 40 and 50 immigrants tried...
Despite increased counterterrorism efforts by Damascus, as much as 90 percent of the foreign fighters in Iraq cross the border from Syria, according to a Pentagon report that says Iran's support for Shiite militants also is hurting efforts to improve...
An Iranian cultural week was inaugurated in Syria on March 9 at the University of Aleppo’s Persian department.
Speaking at the ceremony, director of Iran’s Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (ICRO) Mehdi Mostafavi congratulated the university...
The U.S. dropped China from its list of the world's worst human rights violators, but added Syria, Uzbekistan and Sudan to the alleged offenders in an annual report released Tuesday.
The State Department's 2007 Human Rights Report showed China,...
Efforts by Egypt to put together a package deal that would include a cease-fire in Gaza and a new border arrangement between Gaza and Egypt was put on hold following Thursday's terrorist attack at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem.
Government...
Iran and Syria have signed agreements according to which Iran will increase the value of the technical services it provides to Syria from $1 billion to $3.5 billion, Iranian First Vice President Parviz Davudi told reporters at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport...
The US Coast Guard is increasing security at US ports for ships that have visited Syrian ports, amid concerns over Syria's alleged links with terrorism, the State Department said Thursday.
State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said he understood...
Regional allies Syria and Iran voiced their determination on Thursday to bolster their economic and political ties to overcome their common foes, Israel and the United States.
"We will continue to reinforce strategic cooperation in all sectors...
Visiting Iranian First Vice President Parviz Davoudi on Wednesday held talks with Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Ottri, seeking to boost bilateral ties in the economic and cultural fields, the official SANA news agency reported.
During the...
Iran's Deputy Minister of Housing and Urban Development Moussa Barzegar said here Saturday that volume of investment by Iranian companies in Syria will reach dlrs 3.5 billion from dlrs one billion.
"If the agreements, signed by Iran and Syria,...
Arab leaders are stepping up pressure on Syria to resolve the Lebanese presidential stand-off by threatening to stay away from the Arab League summit in Damascus next month, a move that would deepen Syria's regional isolation.
Arab officials say...
Two large Gulf property companies plan to invest US$450 million in Syria as part of their expansion in emerging markets, executives said on Wednesday.
The projects were announced as Washington expanded economic sanctions on Syria to raise pressure...
The Bush administration on Thursday announced it was imposing economic sanctions on four individuals it accused of helping with the flow of money, weapons, terrorists and other resources from Syria into Iraq.
It marked the administration's latest...
Deeply concerned about Lebanon's political strife, the United States has sped its USS Cole warship off the country's coast in a "show of support for regional stability," a top US official said Thursday.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity,...
Syria has yet to invite regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia to an Arab summit in Damascus next month, an official said on Thursday, as Arab League chief Amr Mussa said some member states would only attend if Lebanon's political crisis was resolved.
Syria...
Czech opposition Social Democrat (CSSD) leader Jiri Paroubek Wednesday met senior officials of the Syrian ruling Arab Socialist Baath Party, but the talks had no "specific political content," he said.
Paroubek was reacting to the server iDnes.cz...
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Syria was part of the problem in Lebanon, calling on Damascus to help resolve the 15-month crisis before hosting an Arab summit next month.
"The summit will be held in Syria and Syria is linked to the Lebanese...
Blogger Tariq Biasi, who has been detained since 7 July 2007, denied posting comments critical of Syria on a website when he was questioned by a Damascus state security court on 22 February.
The authorities identified him as the author of the...
German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Syria on Friday to play "a constructive role" in resolving the political impasse which has left Lebanon without a president for three months. "A swift election for a new president is needed," the chancellor said...
The United States on Thursday imposed economic sanctions
against a prominent Syrian businessman as part of an effort to punish officials in Syria for alleged efforts to undermine the governments of Iraq and Lebanon.
The Treasury Department...
Lebanon's political crisis has damaged relations between Syria and Saudi Arabia, putting at risk next month's Arab summit in Damascus, Arab officials in Riyadh warned on Thursday.
"There is a crisis in ties with the Syrian government, with Lebanon...
Syria plans to sue the U.S. for supplying arms to Israel that later killed Syrians in its 2006 war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, the Syrian foreign minister said Thursday, a day after Washington announced new sanctions against Damascus.
Speaking...
Syria is "directly responsible" for the political crisis in Lebanon and the accompanying violence, a senior US state department official said in Paris on Friday.
"I would describe the situation as one of continuing blockage and the continued eruption...
US President George W. Bush on Wednesday ordered expanded sanctions against Syrian government officials and their associates, the White House said.
The measures are intended to freeze U.S. assets of those believed to have benefited from public...
Imad Mughnieh, a top Hezbollah commander linked to notorious attacks against Western and Israeli targets in the 1980s and 1990s, was killed in a car bombing in Syria, the Shiite militant group announced on Wednesday.
It said Mughnieh, a shadowy...
Syria says it has developed, with Iranian help, a surface-to-surface missile that could better target Israeli installations like airports and factories.
It is believed the missile is more accurate than other similar surface-to-surface weapons...
The German and Saudi foreign ministers called on Syria to help clear the way for the election of a new Lebanese president, the German Foreign Ministry said Friday.
Lebanon has been without a president since November, when the pro-Western parliament...
Syria is stepping up a campaign against dissidents in a sign of President Bashar al-Assad's increasing confidence that U.S.-led efforts to isolate his country have faltered.
In the last few weeks, 12 prominent dissidents have been rounded up in...
Iran's Ambassador to Damascus Ahmad Mousavi in separate meetings on Tuesday conferred with Syrian Minister of Electricity Ahmad Khalid Al-Al and Minister of Tourism Sadallah Agha Al-Qola on expansion of mutual cooperation in these sectors.
At...
Syrian authorities have arrested an Iranian Arab suspected of having links with an Iranian opposition group and there are concerns he might be handed over to Iran, a local human rights group said Wednesday.
The National Organization for Human...
A high-ranking delegation of Syrian academics here Saturday went round various science, culture and laboratory departments of Mashhad Azad (open) University.
The Syrian academics and chancellor of Ghelman university also inspected medical and...
The White House on Wednesday condemned Syria's arrest of former opposition lawmaker Riad Seif, saying it was an "escalation" of the Syrian regime's repression of its own people.
"The United States condemns the arrest on Monday of democracy activist...
France condemns the arrest of Riad Seif at his home in Damascus on January 28. Mr. Seif is an emblematic figure of international renown in the Syrian opposition, secretary general of the Damascus Declaration and a former legislator.
This new...
The United States has condemned the jailing of a former member of Syria's parliament and has demanded his immediate release.
Tom Casey, a US State Department spokesman, expressed concern Tuesday about Riad Seif, who was arrested Monday as part...
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday condemned the arrest of former Syrian MP Riad Seif in a crackdown on opposition activists and urged Damascus to release him.
"The arrest of Riad Seif is unacceptable. I call on the Syrian...
Riad Seif, a former businessman and member of Parliament and a prominent pro-democracy advocate, was arrested at his Damascus home.
A lawyer who represents other dissidents being held by the government, Mohanad al-Hassani, said he expected Mr....
The European Commission delegation in Syria has announced a programme to finance media and cultural projects that will promote the European Union and its relations with countries from the Middle East.
The programme is aimed at small institutions...
Iran's Deputy Minister of Industries and Mines and the Syrian Minister of Industry have held discussions on joint investment projects.
In a meeting in Damascus on Sunday, Mohsen Shaterzadeh and Fuad Issa al-Jouni reviewed new investment projects...
Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen urged Damascus on Thursday to "grab the chance" for Middle East peace, after Israeli-Palestinian negotiations were revived last year.
"I urge Syria to grab the chance of peace. The Netherlands welcomed the...
Iran and Syria here on Wednesday called for further expansion of all-out bilateral relations between the two countries particularly in the areas of economy, commerce and industry.
The remarks were made during a meeting held between the visiting...
Iran's Commerce Minister Massoud Mirkazemi has arrived in Syria to inaugurate the first exposition of Iranian goods in the capital city of Damascus.
More than 150 Iranian companies will participate in the exposition which commences Thursday....
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner accused Syria bluntly of banning Lebanon presidential elections and declared that a settlement to the crisis has reached a dead-end.
"Things have reached a dead-end because one party does not want presidential...
Syria has imposed a blockade of food supplies on Lebanon, the daily An Nahar reported Tuesday.
The report, citing information received by Lebanese authorities, said Syrian customs authorities circulated to all border checkpoints their decision...
Turkish President Abdullah Gul arrived in Damascus on Saturday for talks with Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad on the Middle East and boosting bilateral relations, official news agency SANA said.
Gul will join Arab League chief Amr Mussa, who...
Foreign policy disagreements between Germany's left-right coalition heated up this week as Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier found himself on the defensive for meeting with his Syrian counterpart.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative...
DAMASCUS - Syria hit back at Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for criticising its role in Lebanon, saying Syria could not force its Lebanese allies to accept a solution to the country's political crisis.
"Dealing with Syria as if it was still in Lebanon...
US President George W. Bush on Saturday called on Syria to cut the "flow of terrorists" into Iraq and on Iran to stop supporting militias that attack US forces and Iraqis.
Syria "needs to further reduce the flow of terrorists" and "Iran must stop...
The puzzling site in Syria that Israeli jets bombed in September grew more curious on Friday with the release of a satellite photograph showing new construction there that resembles the site’s former main building.
Israel’s air attack was directed...
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Treasury Department announced Wednesday sanctions on a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards officer and a Syria-based television station for allegedly supporting the insurgents in Iraq against U.S. forces in the country.
The...
US President George W. Bush is carrying "chaotic ideas" with him on his Mideast tour, which is doomed to fail, Syria's government Tishrin newspaper said Wednesday.
Bush, who arrived in Israel Wednesday at the start of an eight-day tour of the...
Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal says the US President's attempt to portray Iran as an enemy of the Arabs is doomed to failure.
In a Wednesday press conference, Bilal said George Bush's attempts were aimed at deflecting the international...
Iran's Deputy Oil Minister Hossein Noqrekar Shirazi and Managing Director of Syrian Gas company Ali Abbas signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Monday for export of Iran's gas o Syria by the end of 2009, it was announced on Tuesday.
According...
Several hundred Jordanians detained in Syrian prisons are planning to begin a hunger strike on Saturday to protest against their detention.
The move comes after the issue was not discussed during a meeting earlier this week between Jordanian...
Two opposition activists have been arrested in Syria in the past 48 hours, a human rights group said in a statement on Friday, taking to nine the number detained in the past month.
"The security services in Damascus on Thursday arrested writer...
Visiting Syrian Deputy Premier Abdullah Dardari urged Turkey Wednesday to let more water flow into his country from the Euphrates river, Anatolia news agency reported.
Dardari said after talks with Turkish officials that the recent drought in...
Iran's ambassador to Damascus stresses the enormous potential existing between Iran and Syria for expansion of economic cooperation.
In a farewell meeting, Mohammad-Hassan Akhtari and Syrian Vice-President Faruq al-Shara conferred over reciprocal...
Syria said on Wednesday it was suspending diplomatic cooperation with France on ending the political crisis in Lebanon, after similar action by Paris.
Paris has accused Damascus of not backing a deal that could allow Lebanon finally to elect a...
Syrian President Bashar Assad has promised to release seven dissidents jailed after trying to revive a democratic movement crushed by the authorities, two US lawmakers said on Sunday.
Assad, however, told Representative Patrick Kennedy and Senator...
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Sunday he had told his staff to suspend diplomatic contacts with Syria until Paris has proof that Damascus is working for a consensus president in Lebanon.
Speaking in Egypt after talks with Egyptian President...
Police believe the extradition of the Syrian man Monzer Al Kassar to the US would represent a risk and a danger to Spain and to our country's soldiers deployed in Lebanon.
So says a memorandum drawn up by one of the members of the force's intelligence...
An attempt to exchange messages between Israel and Syria in recent months has failed. European diplomatic sources said that the reason for the impasse was the inability to reach an agreed-upon agenda for talks between the two countries. But in off-the-record...
Syria received a letter purportedly written by the head of the same nuclear black market that supplied Iran and Libya with technology but did not respond, the country's president said in comments published Wednesday.
President Bashar Assad's remarks...
US President George W. Bush said on Thursday his patience with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had run out "a long time ago."
"Syria needs to stay out of Lebanon," Bush told a White House news conference when asked whether he would be willing...
Syria is cracking down on secular opposition figures who demand democratic reforms, non-governmental groups charged on Tuesday, as Washington demanded the immediate release of political detainees.
"The authorities have chosen the security option...
DAMASCUS — Syria has detained four members of a secular opposition grouping, intensifying a week-old crackdown on dissent that has already drawn US criticism, human rights groups said on Monday.
Security forces in the central city of Hama picked...
Syria should immediately and unconditionally release Dr. Ahmad Tohme, Jabr al-Shoufi, Akram al-Bunni, Dr. Fida’ al-Hurani, and `Ali al-Abdallah from detention, Human Rights Watch said today.
Authorities detained the five political activists following...
Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday (13 Dec) inaugurated a plant to produce Iranian Saba cars, turning out 15,000 in the first year and rising later to an annual 35,000, the official SABA news agency said.
Assad tested a prototype vehicle...
Syrian security authorities last night have broken up a meeting of the general secretariat of Damascus Declaration for National Democratic Change.
Opposition sources have told Elaph that the meeting, which was held in the home of opposition leader...
Beginning last night and continuing today, the Syrian government has arrested more than 20 members of the Syrian National Council, a recently-formed broad coalition of pro-democracy political forces.
"Syria’s dictator, Bashar al Assad, has...
In an unprecedented step, the Damascus Declaration for National Democratic Change held a meeting on 1 December 2007 to officially launch the next phase of the Declaration's strategy for change in Syria.
The announcement of the National Council...
Iran's First Vice President Parviz Davudi is to visit Syria on Wednesday at the official invitation of his Syrian counterpart Farooq Al Shara'a, Qatar news agency reported.
Davudi is scheduled to hold talks with Syrian high-ranking officials...
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a telephone conversation this week not to influence Lebanon's prolonged effort to choose a president.
"My message was that this presidential election should...
The Treasury Department on Thursday put seven people it said were backing the Iraqi insurgency from Syria on a list that forbids US citizens from having any dealings with them.
Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and international finance,...
Iran's adversaries cannot harm the strong ties between Tehran and Damascus, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday, a week after Iran appeared to chide Syria for its decision to take part in a Mideast summit in the United States.
State-run...
A Syrian state-run newspaper on Saturday described this week's US-sponsored Mideast peace conference as a "defeat" for the Palestinians and for peace in the region.
In a surprise move lauded by participants at the time, Syria took part in the...
The United States said Friday it sees a "mixed picture" from Syria about whether it seeks to cooperate with US aims in the Middle East since Damascus backed revived peace talks in the region.
"You have indications of things like participating...
WASHINGTON — A State Department official said Thursday that Syria or its supporters may use violence to interfere in Lebanon's upcoming presidential elections.
"Interference or intimidation in the electoral process is unacceptable to the United...
ISTANBUL — Six countries and the Arab League on Saturday warned against outside interference in Lebanon's upcoming presidential elections in a statement clearly targeted at Syria.
The United States, France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab...
Syria on Tuesday signed a $2.6 billion contract with Iran, Venezuela and Malaysia for the construction of an oil refinery in central Syria that will have a daily capacity of 140,000 barrels, the oil ministry said.
The ministry said the refinery...
Syrian police killed one protester and wounded three when they dispersed a rally expressing support for the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the face of Turkish threats, a Kurdish official said on Saturday.
Two of the wounded were in serious...
