TEL AVIV – Russia’s decision to withdraw some of its forces from Syria was made thanks to reassurances provided by Saudi Arabia, the main sponsor of militias fighting President Bashar Assad’s regime, a senior Arab diplomat told Breitbart Jerusalem.
The Washington Post reports: JERUSALEM — Israel viewed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that he was removing the bulk of his troops from Syria with a mix of surprise and concern. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin met with Putin in Moscow
Ynetnews reports: A Palestinian-American member of the Islamic State group gave himself up to an Iraqi Kurdish military unit in the country’s north, an Iraqi Kurdish general said Monday. The circumstances of the surrender were not fully disclosed, but it marked
CNN reports: The political future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is non-negotiable, his chief envoy said Saturday, undercutting a chief demand of rebels who are scheduled to attend negotiations next week aimed at defusing a brutal five-year war. Assad’s status is
The Jerusalem Post reports: MOSCOW – Russia is convinced the United Nations peace mediator on Syria Staffan de Mistura should take a decision on including ethnic Kurds in Syria peace talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday. Holding
Fox News reports: Despite the fragile “cessation of hostilities” over much of Syria, a steady barrage of Russian air strikes is still aimed at moderate and U.S.-supported rebel forces, further complicating desperately strained humanitarian relief efforts and preparing the way
The Independent reports: The Middle East has just experienced its worst drought in more than 900 years, a Nasa report has found. Scientists said that a 15-year dry spell in the eastern Mediterranean, which ended in 2012 and is thought to be
TEL AVIV, Israel – Turkey fears that Russia’s growing involvement in the Syrian civil war on behalf of Bashar al-Assad’s regime may push the Syrian president to claim the disputed border region of Iskenderun, a senior Arab intelligence source told Breitbart Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem Post reports: The Israeli defense establishment remains skeptical about the chances of the partial cease-fire in Syria holding up. “We’re not counting on it,” one defense source told the Jerusalem Post on Sunday, when asked how the truce across
A Syrian rebel commander said on Saturday that government shelling had stopped in some parts of Syria but continued elsewhere in what he described as a violation of a cessation of hostilities agreement that came into effect at midnight. Fares
The Washington Examiner reports: President Obama touted progress in the fight against the Islamic State in both Iraq and in Syria on the same day a cease-fire deal with Syrian rebels and the government went into effect. “ISIL is entrenched, including
Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Monday he was sceptical that a Syria ceasefire announced for February 27 by the United States and Russia will succeed. He also said that both Washington and Moscow recognise Israeli freedom of action
The Jerusalem Post reports: If the Syrian regime wins the civil war and Iran ends up on the Golan, Israel could have difficulty defending itself, said a former White House official on Monday. Michael Doran called for a US policy
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel voiced doubt on Sunday that an international ceasefire plan for Syria would work, with one senior official suggesting a sectarian partition of the country might be preferable. While formally neutral on the five-year civil war wracking
Istanbul (AFP) – Turkey hit Kurdish and Syrian regime targets on Saturday as Ankara mulled a ground assault with Saudi troops, further complicating efforts to end the war just days after the US and Russia agreed on a “cessation of
Tens of thousands of Syrians were stranded at the border with Turkey on Monday after escaping a Russia-backed government offensive in Aleppo, as Germany’s chancellor prepared to visit Ankara to press for tighter border controls. Turkey has vowed to help
The presence of Iran’s Foreign Minister in London this week to speak on Middle East security challenges has been slammed as “an insult to British values” by local Jewish community leaders. Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was instrumental in negotiating the nuclear deal
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A top Israeli general says the Islamic State group is “our enemy” and that Israel is sharing intelligence with allies battling the extremists despite remaining on the sidelines of Syria’s civil war. Maj. Gen. Nitzan
Islamic State (ISIS) theologians have issued an extremely detailed ruling on when “owners” of women enslaved by the extremist group can have sex with them, in an apparent bid to curb what they called violations in the treatment of captured
TEL AVIV – The UN Security Council passed a resolution seemingly legitimizing the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria and invited Iran to join the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), MEMRI reported. On December 18, 2015, the UNSC unanimously passed Resolution 2254,
JERUSALEM – Actors Sacha Baron Cohen and his actress wife, Isla Fisher, are donating $1 million to two organizations helping Syrian children and refugees. Half the sum will go to the UK-based Save The Children to help vaccinate against measles
Britain, the European Union and various United Nations welfare agencies combined over the past 16 months to build the world’s second-biggest and best refugee camp. The tent city stands in the baking Jordanian desert, 55 miles from the Syrian border, and today it
The Russian air force is carrying out increased airstrikes to aid a Syrian military campaign aimed at devastating rebel positions along the Syria-Turkey border, an official from Syria’s Ministry of Information told Breitbart Jerusalem.
JAFFA, Israel – The Iranians are bribing officers and commanders from the second and third tiers of the Syrian army in order to gain their loyalty, an Arab diplomatic official told Breitbart Jerusalem.
New German security analysis has revealed that more than 50 per cent of displaced Syrians in Jordan intend to join the migrant invasion crossing the Mediterranean for a new home in the European Union (EU). They will join a human flood that has already
NATO has rejected Moscow’s explanation that its warplanes had violated alliance member Turkey’s air space by mistake and said Russia was sending more ground troops to Syria and building up its naval presence. With Russia extending its air strikes to include
Russian volunteers who have honed their combat skills in Ukraine are likely to travel to Syria to fight alongside the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, Admiral Vladimir Komoyedov, the head of the Russian parliament’s defence committee, said on Monday. “It
Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria to join a major ground offensive in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s government, Lebanese sources said on Thursday, a sign the civil war is turning still more regional and global in scope.
