A UN envoy on Sunday pushed for progress on the eve of the latest round of talks in Geneva towards revising Syria’s constitution and winding down the country’s nine-year-old civil war. “We want to see progress,” Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, told reporters during a virtual news[…]
The Israeli army said on Friday it was holding the body of a Palestinian shot dead in the occupied West Bank earlier this week, ending days of uncertainty over his fate. The announcement follows a policy change last month in which Israel said it would not return the bodies of[…]
The United States has made preparations to withdraw diplomats from Iraq after warning Baghdad it could shut its embassy, two Iraqi officials and two Western diplomats say, a step Iraqis fear could turn their country into a battle zone. Any move by the US to scale down its diplomatic presence[…]
A coalition of humanitarian groups have called on the Trump administration to rescind a months-long suspension of aid to northern areas of Yemen, warning that unless it is done immediately it will cause further suffering and claim innocent lives. In a letter sent to the US Agency for International Development[…]
Syria is holding parliamentary elections across government-controlled areas of the country on Sunday, as President Bashar al-Assad marks 20 years in power amid a continuing war and deep economic woes. More than 2,000 candidates, including businessmen under recently-imposed United States sanctions, are running in the legislative election – the third[…]
Jordan’s king warned Israel of a “massive conflict” if it proceeds with plans to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank, as European Union foreign ministers agreed to step up diplomatic efforts to try to head off such a move. Israel has promised to annex Jewish settlements and the[…]
“I just want to grab Shiraaz and hold him.” These were the words of Shirley Brijlal, the former wife of SA photographer Shiraaz Mohamed, who was kidnapped and held hostage in Syria for almost three years. Gift of the Givers announced this week that they had received information that Mohamed[…]
Captured photojournalist Shiraaz Mohamed is safe in Turkey and through diplomatic channels, will return to South Africa soon. That was the word from Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, the founder of the Gift of the Givers Foundation, speaking to VOC Breakfast Beat, following the breakthrough that the South African is now free[…]
Ramping up his war-mongering rhetoric, Israel’s defense chief has said Syria can become Iran’s ‘Vietnam’ and vowed to prevent Tehran from gaining a foothold there. It comes after Tel Aviv threatened Iran with a pre-emptive strike. Israel, which is making incursions into Syria on almost a daily basis, pummeling the[…]
Masih Ur-Rahman’s seven children and wife were killed in a US air strike on their house last September in Wardak, a central Afghan province. Four other relatives in the house, all children, also died. “I lost everything in this life,” he told Al Jazeera. “I ask myself every day, how could[…]
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