US President Joe Biden has expressed support for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers in a phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr Biden is facing growing pressure from his own Democratic Party to play a more vocal role, but US officials say he and his team have opted for a quieter effort, talking directly with Israeli …

An Afghan soldier who murdered three Australian soldiers has been flown to Qatar ahead of US-brokered peace talks with the Taliban. The prisoner, known as Hekmatullah, has spent seven years in jail after killing Lance Corporal Stjepan Milosevic, Sapper James Martin and Private Robert Poate in August 2012. The ABC has confirmed the former Afghan Army sergeant was on board …

The massive blast that hit Lebanon’s capital on Tuesday has delivered yet another devastating blow to a country already rocked by crises. Well before the explosion, and even the coronavirus pandemic which upended the world, Lebanon was in the midst of the worst economic crisis in its history. Half its population of 6 million lives near or below the poverty …

Syria’s permanent representative to the UN, Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari said on Friday that Syria fights terrorism on its territories and will continue to confront the Turkish aggression, protect its citizens, defend its unity and adhere to its sovereignty and national independent decision. Al-Jaafari, speaking at a UN Security council emergency session on the situation in Idleb, called on the international …

Refugees in Turkey are headed towards European frontiers after the borders had been thrown open, a response to the escalating war in Syria where 33 Turkish soldiers were killed by Russian-backed Syrian government troops. Moscow and Ankara traded blame over Thursday’s strike in northwest Syria, the deadliest attack on Turkish forces in nearly 30 years. The UN Security Council called an …

Syria’s Parliament [People’s Assembly] has unanimously passed a resolution recognizing and condemning the Armenian genocide committed by the Ottoman state at the turn of the 20th century. The move was adopted during the session held today at the Parliament in Damascus. The resolution expressed the sympathy of the Parliament with the Armenian people and recognized that Armenian, Syriac and Assyrian peoples …

A Turkish private jet operator says ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn used two of its planes illegally in his escape from Japan, with an employee falsifying lease records to exclude his name from the documents. MNG Jet said it had filed a criminal complaint over the incident, a day after Turkish police detained seven people, including four pilots, as part of …

President Trump has executed a policy U-turn on Syria. He’s now tasking U.S. forces that he’d promised to withdraw from there with a new mission: securing the oil fields of southeastern Syria. And it’s raising questions about just what he intends to do with that oil. Trump has appeared fixated on Syria’s largely defunct oil fields in the weeks since his Oct. 9 …

Take any words from US politicians with a grain of salt, Syria’s Bashar Assad has urged, as he cast doubt on the story of the Islamic State leader being killed in US a raid, and compared it to the shady killing of Osama Bin Laden. The widely publicized US special forces raid that allegedly killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader …

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri has said he is resigning, amid protests that have gripped the country for two weeks. Mr Hariri said Lebanon had reached a deadlock and needed a shock to break the crisis. The protests began against now-scrapped plans to tax WhatsApp calls, but quickly widened to target political corruption and the economic turmoil. Lebanon has one …