Russia and Turkey signed an agreement to prevent a Syrian regime offensive in Idlib this week. The agreement will create a large demilitarized zone and is supposed to lead to “radical terrorist groups” being removed from parts of Idlib by October 15. The full text of the agreement was published on Wednesday by The National. Iran was not a party to the agreement and… Read more »
The possibility that acid was used to dissolve the body of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is one line of inquiry, a well-placed source has told Sky News. Sky’s special correspondent Alex Crawford, in Istanbul, said she was told by someone “very close to the inquiry” that one of the theories is Mr Khashoggi’s remains were destroyed in a “very… Read more »
Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat in Istanbul has reportedly left Turkey, hours after it was announced his official residence would be searched in connection with a journalist’s disappearance. Mohammed al-Otaibi, the Saudi consul general, apparently left on a 2pm flight as security forces set up barricades outside his residence in the city. It comes as police who searched the nearby Saudi consulate… Read more »
The Sochi agreement on Idlib between Russia and Turkey was expected to come into effect on October 15. Fighters and heavy weapons should have been pulled out from a 15-20 kilometres demilitarised zone separating the Syrian regime from the armed opposition and fighters from Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an alliance led by al-Qaeda’s former Syrian affiliate. However, the challenges to implementing the agreement… Read more »
A team of Turkish investigators has entered the residence of the Saudi consul general in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance and suspected killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Three million civilians and perhaps 90,000 rebel fighters are inside its perimeter. It is estimated that they include a hard core of up to 20,000 jihadist extremists. The war is in its eighth year. The regime argues that it was always a foreign conspiracy designed to destroy Syria. But early in the war I crossed into rebel-held areas to talk… Read more »
Egypt has said its security forces have killed 450 armed fighters since the beginning of its eight-month offensive against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, otherwise known ISIS) in the Sinai peninsula. Army Spokesman Tamer al-Rifai said the large-scale operation, dubbed “Sinai 2018,” has also resulted in the dismantling of some 1,200 explosive devices and the destruction of about 1,900… Read more »
Israel says its fighter jets have struck 20 targets in the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and injuring eight others. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, Naji Ahmad al-Zaneen, 25, was killed in the attack in northern Gaza early on Wednesday. Among the wounded are six children who were on their way to school in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. Palestinian sources… Read more »
The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has announced he will step down at the end of November after more than four years in the key post. The Italian Swedish diplomat, who became the UN’s third Syria envoy in July 2014, told the UN Security Council on Wednesday he was leaving for “purely personal reasons”. “I am not laying down the… Read more »
Over the course of my lifetime I have noticed a recurring theme within governments and the people that serve them and openly criticize them. If the form of government is a democracy is tends to be more open to criticism than an autocratic form of government. As seen in the United States the newspapers and press constantly openly disagree with… Read more »