The UN migration chief expressed concerns about large-scale refugee returns destabilizing Syria further, particularly affecting religious minorities who fled violence during the Assad regime’s brutal crackdown and subsequent years of conflict

HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said that all rebel factions in Syria would "be disbanded and the fighters trained to join the ranks of the defense ministry

Jolani emphasized unity in Syria, advocating a social contract among religions for justice, while urging diplomats to lift sanctions to facilitate refugee returns and support the nation’s recovery and stability.

The occupied Golan is home to about 23,000 Druze Arabs, whose presence predates the occupation and most of whom retain Syrian citizenship, as well as around 30,000 Israelis.

The United States said Saturday it had made contact with Syria's victorious Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels, despite previously designating the group as terrorists, following Bashar al-Assad’s ouster last weekend

Damascus, Syria - G7 leaders will meet virtually Friday to discuss the momentous changes underway in Syria, where the interim government has vowed to institute the "rule of law" after years of abuses under ousted president Bashar al-Assad. Assad fled Syria after a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir...

With Assad's overthrow plunging Syria into the unknown, its new rulers have sought to assure religious minorities that they will not repress them, pledging also justice for the victims of Assad's iron-fisted rule.

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the Islamist leader who headed the rebel offensive, had previously announced talks on a transfer of power and vowed to pursue former senior officials responsible for torture and war crimes.

Syria's Islamist rebel leader on Tuesday vowed to pursue former senior government officials responsible for torture and war crimes, a day after he began talks on the transfer of power following president Bashar al-Assad's ouster.

While Berlin and other governments said they were watching the fast-moving developments in the war-ravaged nation, Vienna signaled it would soon deport refugees back to Syria.

Major stock markets diverged as investors reacted to political crises in South Korea and France, and tracked the perspectives for interest rate cuts. Gold, seen as a haven investment, gained around one percent.

The Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels shocked the world by swiftly seizing Aleppo and Damascus, overshadowing global focus on the Gaza war and Israel's strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Bashar al-Assad's whereabouts not clear, but his key backer Russia said he had resigned from the presidency and left Syria. Crowds loot his home and vandalize the Iranian embassy.

While Aleppo and Hama, the two other main cities taken from government control in recent days, fell to an Islamist-led rebel alliance, Daraa was taken by local armed groups, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A meeting was expected on the forum's sidelines between Turkey, and Damascus allies Iran and Russia.

Analysts said they expected the fighters led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) to push on towards the city, a key link between Damascus and the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast.

Tehran, Iran - Iran will consider any request from its Syrian ally for troops to help tackle a sweeping rebel offensive in the north, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday. "If the Syrian government asks us to send forces to Syria, we will study their request," Araghchi said in an...

Extremist-dominated rebel alliance, including ISIS supporters, runs over Syrian city of Aleppo allegedly backed by Turkey. Russia and Iran push to keep Assad in power.

Human Rights Watch said the strikes were "impeding civilians trying to flee and disrupting humanitarian operations", adding: "The situation places civilians at grave risk."

Erdogan's comments come after tensions have mounted over the past week after a mob went on the rampage, vandalising businesses and properties owned by Syrians in a central Anatolian city. "We may send an invitation (to Assad) at any moment," Erdogan told journalists aboard a plane from Berlin where he...

The Syrian Ministry of Defence said in a statement that "after midnight... the Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the southeast of Aleppo, targeting some positions" near the city, adding that "the aggression caused several martyrs and material damage".

Syrian state news agency SANA reported that an unspecified number of people had arrived from Lebanon as part of the initiative to repatriate several hundred Syrians .

The EU Commission's spokesman said in Brussels the aid will be disbursed "in grants", with 736 million euros earmarked to support Lebanon "in response to the Syrian crisis".

Rockets were fired late Sunday from northern Iraq at a military base in Syria housing a US-led coalition, according to Iraqi security forces. In response, the Iraqi forces launched a major search operation in northern Nineveh province and found the vehicle used in the attack, they said in a statement....

The United States was among the first to cut ties with Assad over the repression of anti-government protests that sparked war in 2011, and many Western and Arab states also severed relations.

The latest bombardments in Gaza came after Israel said it had strengthened air defences and paused leave for combat units, following a deadly April 1 air strike that destroyed Iran's consulate building in Damascus. Iran blamed its arch foe Israel, which has stepped up strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria...

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Wednesday that Israel "must be punished and will be punished", days after one of his advisers said Israeli embassies are "no longer safe". Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz swiftly replied on social media site X that "if Iran attacks from its territory, Israel...

Amir-Abdollahian is set to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad during the visit, while Syria's information ministry said he was to inaugurate a new Iranian consular section. Syria's pro-government newspaper Al-Watan said the officials' talks would be "mainly focused" on repercussions of last week's strike.

Damascus, Syria - Seven children were killed in southern Syria's Daraa province on Saturday when an "explosive device" detonated, state media reported. "Seven children" were killed "and two other people were injured, one of them a woman, when an explosive device planted by terrorists" went off in the city of Sanamayn,...

Tehran, Iran - Iran on Saturday again threatened retaliation for the deaths of seven Revolutionary Guards in a strike on Damascus, with the army chief saying his country's enemies will "regret" the killings. Tehran has vowed to avenge Monday's air strike on the Syrian capital it blamed on its arch-enemy Israel,...

Monday's strike in the Syrian capital levelled the five-storey consular annex of the Iranian embassy and killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals. Nasrallah, whose fighters have been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire with Israel since the Gaza war began in October, said the strike on the Iran consulate...

Tehran, Iran--Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei mourned Thursday the seven Revolutionary Guards killed in a strike in Syria, which he has blamed on Israel and has vowed to "punish", state media reported. The Guards, including two generals, were killed in the air strike on Monday which levelled the Iranian...

Tehran, Iran - Iran has repatriated the bodies of seven Revolutionary Guard Corps members killed in a strike on the country's consular annex in Damascus, which Tehran blamed on Israel, local media reported. The Guards, including two generals, were killed in the air strike on Monday which levelled the Iranian embassy's...

Jerusalem - The Israeli army has suspended leave for its combat units, it said on Thursday, amid the Gaza war and as tensions with Iran grew after a strike on Tehran's consulate in Damascus. Israeli media reported that the military was also calling up more reservist soldiers "against the background...

The volunteers don their club's signature blue vest, the front and back embroidered with their emblem: a flaming motorbike and the Syrian flag.

The Supreme leader said in a speech to officials in Tehran that the defeat of "the Zionist regime in Gaza will continue and this regime will be close to decline and dissolution." He said "desperate efforts" like the one committed in Syria will not save them and they will be...

In a statement, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani "strongly condemned" the attack and said that Iran "reserves the right to carry out a reaction and will decide on the type of response and the punishment of the aggressor." Iran's ambassador in Damascus, Hossein Akbari, said, "the five-storey consulate building...

Beirut, Lebanon--Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbollah group warned Tuesday that Israel will pay for killing high-level Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in a strike on the country's consulate in Damascus, Syria, the day before. Hizbollah has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Gaza war erupted in...

Beirut, Lebanon - The death toll in Israeli air strikes on Syria has risen to 52, including 38 government soldiers and seven members of Lebanon's Hizbollah movement, a war monitor said on Saturday. Friday's strikes fueled concerns of a wider regional conflagration. They targeted "a rocket depot belonging to Lebanon's Hizbollah"...

In Syria, "Israeli strikes" targeted a Hizbollah "rockets depot" in Aleppo province, killing 36 Syrian soldiers, seven Hezbollah members and another pro-Iran fighter, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said. It was the highest Syrian army toll in Israeli strikes since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7.

Beirut, Lebanon - A UN official on Friday appealed for about $4 billion in humanitarian assistance for Syria, warning funding was almost non-existent and that lack of support would push more Syrians to emigrate. Syria's war, which began 13 years ago with the repression of anti-government protests, has killed more than...

Beirut, Lebanon - Israeli raids hit warehouses storing weapons for the Lebanese Hizbollah group in Syria Tuesday, a war monitor said, as a Syrian military source said air defenses had intercepted several missiles. Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since civil war broke out in 2011, targeting Iran-backed...

Damascus, Syria -- Visiting United Nations special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen urged Damascus Sunday to rejoin talks to revise the country's constitution, warning that political dialogue was going "in the wrong direction". Syria's war, which began 13 years ago with the repression of pro-democracy protests, has killed more than 500,000...

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on targets in Syria since civil war broke out in 2011, mainly targeting Iran-backed forces including fighters from Lebanon's Hizbollah movement as well as Syrian army positions. The strikes have increased since Israel's war with Palestinian resistance group Hamas began on October 7.

Jerusalem--The Israeli army said Tuesday it hit about 4,500 Hizbollah targets in Lebanon and Syria over the past five months, killing 300 of the group's fighters and wounding more than 750. The targets were hit from the air and from the ground, the army said in a statement, and included...

Beirut, Lebanon - Gunmen thought to be linked to the Islamic State group in Syria killed 18 people searching for truffles in the desert Wednesday, a war monitor said. More than 50 people remained missing after the attack that saw heavy clashes with pro-government forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights...

According to Syria's defense ministry, Israeli fighter jets carried out strikes "from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan", targeting a number of sites in the Damascus countryside. The ministry added that the country's air defenses responded to the attack, shooting down most of the missiles.

Oil spills in Iraq -- a country ravaged by decades of conflict, corruption and decaying infrastructure -- have contaminated farmland in the northern province, especially during the winter rains.

Baalbek, Lebanon - Israeli strikes near the Hizbollah-dominated city of Baalbek killed two group members on Monday, two security sources told AFP, in the first strikes on Lebanon's east since clashes began after the Gaza war. "Two Hizbollah members were killed in the Israeli strikes near Baalbek," a security official told...

An Israeli strike on a residential area of Damascus killed at least two people, Syrian state media reported, the latest deaths from an escalating Israeli air campaign since the Gaza war erupted in October. Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since civil war broke out in 2011.