Mena Today

The United States, joined by Arab mediators, sought on Wednesday to conclude an agreement between Israel and Hamas to halt the 14-month-old war in the Gaza Strip.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is finalizing negotiations on a potential ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, which could include the release of hostages held for over a year. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a supporter of Syria’s new leadership, welcomed France’s decision to send a diplomatic mission to Damascus, according to a statement from Ankara on Wednesday following a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Hadi al-Bahra, head of the Syrian National Coalition that grouped opponents of Bashar al-Assad during the civil war, said on Wednesday Syria's transitional government should be credible and not exclude any Syrian party or be based on sectarianism.

Following the recent ceasefire with Hezbollah, international airlines are gradually resuming flights to Israel, providing alternatives to the high fares charged by El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. during the war.

Qatari news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed cited two Iraqi officials on Wednesday as saying that a sharp drop was seen in Captagon smuggling into the country from Syria since the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime.

Russia said on Wednesday it had detained a citizen of Uzbekistan who had confessed to planting and detonating a bomb which killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov in Moscow a day earlier on the instructions of Ukraine's security service.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have tightened their grip on the country's oil industry and control up to half the exports that generate most of Tehran's revenue and fund its proxies across the Middle East, according to Western officials, security sources and Iranian insiders.

Israel will remain on the strategic Mount Hermon site on the Syrian border until another arrangement is found, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

A ceasefire between Turkey and the U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian forces (SDF) around the northern Syrian city of Manbij has been extended until the end of this week, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday.

The head of a U.S.-based Syrian advocacy organization on Monday said that a mass grave outside of Damascus contained the bodies of at least 100,000 people killed by the former government of ousted President Bashar al-Assad.