Syria
Syria and Turkey seal gas agreement to ease power crisis
Syria and Turkey have reached a deal to supply Syria with six million cubic meters of natural gas per day, Syrian Energy Minister Mohammad al-Bachir announced Friday.
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Monday Lebanon will cooperate with an Interpol request to arrest former Syrian intelligence officer Jamil Hassan, accused by U.S. authorities of war crimes under the toppled Assad government.
The Interpol request was circulated among Lebanon’s General Security and border control authorities © Mena Today
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Monday Lebanon will cooperate with an Interpol request to arrest former Syrian intelligence officer Jamil Hassan, accused by U.S. authorities of war crimes under the toppled Assad government.
Last week, Lebanon received an official notice from Interpol urging judicial and security authorities to detain Hassan, whose whereabouts remain unclear, if he is found on Lebanese soil, three Lebanese judicial sources told Reuters.
"We are committed to cooperating with the Interpol letter regarding the arrest of the Director of Syrian Air Force Intelligence, as we continue to cooperate on all matters related to the international system," Mikati told Reuters.
The directive also called for Hassan's arrest if he enters Lebanon, with the ultimate aim of extraditing him to the United States, the sources said.
On Dec. 9, a U.S. indictment unsealed charges against Hassan, 72, with war crimes, including the torture of detainees, some of them U.S. citizens, during the Syrian civil war.
Hassan is also one of three senior Syrian officials who were found guilty by a French court in May of war crimes over their involvement in the disappearance and subsequent death of a French-Syrian father and his son.
According to Lebanese judicial sources, the Interpol arrest warrant accuses Hassan of involvement in "crimes of murder, torture, and genocide."
Hassan is also allegedly responsible for overseeing the deployment of thousands of barrel bombs against the Syrian population, leading to the deaths of countless civilians, the sources said.
The Interpol request was circulated among Lebanon’s General Security and border control authorities.
Up to 30 lower-ranking former intelligence and Fourth Division army officers under the Assad administration are now in police custody in Lebanon following their arrest by Lebanese authorities, two security sources told Reuters.
By Laila Bassam
Syria and Turkey have reached a deal to supply Syria with six million cubic meters of natural gas per day, Syrian Energy Minister Mohammad al-Bachir announced Friday.
The Bahraini king's media adviser, Nabeel al-Hamer, said on Thursday that Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz has invited leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to attend a Gulf-U.S. summit in Riyadh.
The United States is no longer demanding Saudi Arabia normalise ties with Israel as a condition for progress on civil nuclear cooperation talks, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's visit next week.
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