Middle East/Levant & Turkey

Syria has suggested integrating the female fighters into the Interior Ministry, but not into combat roles

The disarmament progress made by Hezbollah on the ground is considered insufficient by Israel

US and coalition forces are expected to withdraw on September 30 with disarmament expected to occur before then

“It is time for Hezbollah to do what is best for Lebanon and the Lebanese people,” the US State Department said on X, calling on the group to surrender its weapons to the Lebanese state

The landmark transaction and a café in Damascus’s Old City signals Syria’s push to rejoin the global financial system after decades of sanctions and isolation

Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, considered the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Syria, called for the State of Israel to protect the Druze community.

Turkey's presence in Syria is a fact. Diplomatically and militarily. Israel needs to keep a vigilant eye on Turkey to better understand its true intentions

"These clans constitute, to a large extent, a crucial human and military reservoir that supplies Hezbollah with personnel and field capabilities at various junctures"

If Turkey is so afraid of a Kurdish-Israeli relationship, perhaps that relationship deserves to be taken more seriously.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said in a Reuters interview that contact between the two countries were cut entirely after Israel's recent strike on a Syrian airbase

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek says Ankara also seeks a notice for an Israeli official after a Turkish court issued arrest warrants on genocide charges

Jerusalem fears coordination with Ankara could constrain its freedom to strike as tensions rise over Turkey’s expanding role in Syria

"Netanyahu’s fall is only a matter of weeks," a Syrian source close to the regime tells i24NEWS, in hopes that a new government will be 'less aggressive'

“There’s an escalation, there’s an aggressive behavior coming from the Israeli side with actions, not only words, but actual actions"

Waseem al-Assad, cousin of Bashar al-Assad, was sentenced to death after being convicted of crimes against humanity in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta region

A US State Department spokesperson told i24NEWS that "we expect the Lebanese army to complete the clearing of the area – and afterward the clearance will be expanded"

The proposal marks the latest step in implementing a June framework tying Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon to Hezbollah's disarmament

Defense Minister Israel Katz's visit to Lebanon's frontline villages comes as Israel weighs its next moves against Hezbollah following the group's refusal to disarm south of the Litani River

A Damascus court sentenced ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia, the first such ruling by the country's transitional government on a senior figure of the former government

Hezbollah faced with unprecedented financial crisis as US sanctions and tighter Lebanese banking controls squeeze the group’s funding according to The New York Times

The explosion occurred in Jaramana, a suburb with significant Druze and Christian communities

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem also expressed support for the deployment of the Lebanese Army south of the Litani River amid evolving Lebanese-Syrian relations

Russian oil shipments to Syria jumped 75% to about 60,000 barrels per day this year, making Moscow the dominant crude supplier to Syria

The meeting marks the first visit by a Lebanese head of state to the White House in nearly 20 years