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participative diplomacy, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said that the general sort of the needle is moving more towards the reality of a negotiation than the continuation of the Russia-Ukraine war. Jaishankar also highlighted the impact of the conflict situations in the Gulf and the Mediterranean region on countries all over, including India, in terms of cost escalation for oil, fertilisers and shipping etc. Visiting Doha to participate in the Doha Forum at the invitation of Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of State of Qatar Mohammed bin Abdulrahman and was addressing a panel along with him and Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide. Answering a question about the situation in the Gulf region and the latest in Syria, the External Affairs Minister highlighted how there is a widening of conflict and gave examples of Israel-Iran firing at each other; said how the situation in Red Sea is impacting shipping for Asia, and then, referred to a previous session of journalists who said even when the job is tough, journalists need to do it.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A fast-advancing rebel offensive in Syria threatens to dislodge Russia from a strategic linchpin that Moscow has used for a decade to project power in the Middle East, in the Mediterranean and into the African continent. It also challenges Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to portray Moscow as a flag bearer for an alternative global order to rival Western liberalism, and his defense of the Syrian regime as evidence of successful pushback against American dominance in the region.

Syrian rebels said they seized control of the southern city of Daraa on Saturday, the birthplace of a 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and the fourth city his forces have lost in a week. Rebel sources said the military agreed to make an orderly withdrawal from Daraa under a deal giving army officials safe passage to the capital Damascus, about 100 km (60 miles) north. Social media videos showed rebels on motorcycles and others mingling with residents on the streets. People fired shots into the air at the city's main square in celebration, according to the videos.

missiles and drones to Syria and increase the number of its military advisers there to support President Bashar al-Assad in his battle against rebels, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Friday. «It is likely that Tehran will need to send military equipment, missiles and drones to Syria… Tehran has taken all necessary steps to increase number of its military advisers in Syria and deploy forces,» the official said on condition of anonymity. «Now, Tehran is providing intelligence and satellite support to Syria.» For Iran, Assad is a crucial ally, part of its «Axis of Resistance» to Israel and U.S. influence in the Middle East.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Islamist rebels launched a large-scale attack on Syrian government forces, causing the largest shift in the balance of power since 2020 in Syria, where more than a decade of war has taken place. Battling Iran- and Russian-backed regime forces, the rebels in a lightning offensive captured Aleppo, which was Syria’s largest city before the war, and then advanced south to the strategic and symbolically important city of Hama.

Israeli bombardment, while behind the scenes, the United States and Gulf countries courted him diplomatically. It was a secretive, two-pronged approach meant to pressure Syrian President Bashar Assad to abandon his most important regional alliance with Hezbollah and Iran. The overtures to Assad were the product of what Israel and its allies saw as a rare but risky opportunity: With Iran's regional network fracturing under Israeli attack, they hoped to force Iran's most important partner out of the alliance, according to former U.S. officials, two European diplomats and four Israeli officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. Now, those regional ambitions may be derailed by a far smaller and long-discounted force: Resurgent rebels have launched a surprisingly successful attack in Syria, exploiting in part the strain Israel has put on the alliance that helped Assad maintain power through more than a decade of uprising and civil war. In a matter of days, the rebels seized most of the country's large city of Aleppo, and challenged Assad's grip on the country's northwest.

Syria's second-largest city Aleppo has fallen from government control for the first time since the country's conflict began more than a decade ago, a war monitor said Sunday, after a surprise advance by rebels. An Islamist-dominated rebel alliance has pressed a lightning offensive against forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed Syrian government since Wednesday, the same day a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighbouring Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after two months of all-out war. The Syrian army — supported by Russian air power — had recaptured in 2016 rebel-held areas of Aleppo, a city dominated by its landmark citadel.

Hezbollah weapons smuggling sites along Syria's border with Lebanon, the Israeli military said Saturday, testing a fragile, days-old ceasefire that halted months of fighting between the sides but has seen continued sporadic fire. The military said it struck sites that had been used to smuggle weapons from Syria to Lebanon after the ceasefire took effect, which the military said was a violation of its terms. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities or activists monitoring the conflict in that country. Hezbollah also did not immediately comment. Israeli aircraft have struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, citing ceasefire violations, several times since the ceasefire began on Wednesday.

It was the first opposition attack on Aleppo since 2016, when a brutal air campaign by Russian warplanes helped Syrian President Bashar Assad retake the northwestern city. Intervention by Russia, Iran and Iranian-allied Hezbollah and other groups has allowed Assad to remain in power, within the 70% of Syria under his control. The surge in fighting has raised the prospect of another violent front reopening in the Middle East, at a time when U.S.-backed Israel is fighting Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, both Iranian-allied groups.

The fighters took control of «half of the city of Aleppo» as regime forces withdrew, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The offensive began on Wednesday, the same day that a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighbouring Lebanon between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Rebels in Syria launched a large-scale attack on Assad government forces, storming a military base and seizing control of swaths of territory in the country’s northwest in the first major outbreak of fighting between the two sides in recent years. The Syrian government said Thursday that its forces are confronting the continuing attack.

weapons storage facility in Syria in response to an attack on American forces a day earlier. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) wrote on X that the strike aimed to «degrade their ability to plan and launch future attacks on US and Coalition forces who are in the region to conduct D-ISIS operations,» referring to a mission to target the Islamic State group. It said that there were no civilian casualties found during its assessment of the strike.

Lebanon, including 29 deaths from a devastating attack that flattened a multi-story residential building in central Beirut's densely populated Basta area. According to the IDF, 12 Hezbollah command centers were struck by the Israel Air Force in Dahieh, Beirut, including sites used by Hezbollah's Intelligence Unit, coast-to-sea missile unit, and Unit 4400--responsible for smuggling weapons from Iran through Syria into Lebanon. The IDF said, these command centers were used to plan, command, and execute terrorist attacks against Israel and monitor terrorist activity against IDF troops operating in southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, the Lebanese Ministry of Health revised the death toll upward on Sunday, initially reporting 20 deaths before confirming the higher number. Rescue teams continued working late into the weekend as the tragic aftermath of the Israeli airstrike became clear.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. TEL AVIV—As Israel advances its invasion of southern Lebanon, its troops are finding large troves of Russian weapons, confirming longstanding suspicions in Israel that Hezbollah is enhancing its fighting capacity with the help of sophisticated Russian arms. Some of the weapons, which include modern Kornet antitank missiles manufactured as recently as 2020, were sent to southern Lebanon in recent years from Russian stockpiles in neighboring Syria, according to Syrian security officials and an Arab official.

Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital Beirut killed Hezbollah's media relations chief Mohammed Afif on Sunday, Times of Israel reported. According to the Times of Israel, Hezbollah has confirmed the death of Mohammad Afif. Afif was killed in an IDF strike on the headquarters of the Syrian Ba'ath Party in central Beirut, Times of Israel reported.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The conventional wisdom after Israel’s recent strikes on Iranian military facilities in retaliation for Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel is that the risk of further escalation has been contained. Initial statements from the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader suggested that Iran may not respond further.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. To grasp how bad things are in Lebanon, consider that Syria—where war and tyranny created the world’s largest refugee crisis—now seems like a safe haven. Since September around 500,000 people have fled Israel’s invasion of their country for the war-torn and fragmented ex-state next door.

A prime-time CNN discussion that went off the rails led to a conservative writer being thrown off the air and banned from the network

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Another urgent conflict in the Middle East is playing out on the border between Syria and Jordan: a war against captagon, an amphetamine-like drug that’s taken off across the region. The drug cuts across social class and borders.

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). “The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since Oct. 7 – on seven fronts – including direct attacks from Iranian soil,” the IDF stated, further emphasizing that Israel reserves “the right and the duty to respond” to protect its sovereignty and people.

Turkiye struck suspected Kurdish militant targets in Syria and Iraq for a second day on Thursday following an attack on the premises of a key defense company which killed at least five people, the state-run news agency reported. The National Intelligence Organization targeted numerous «strategic locations» used by the Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK, or by Syrian Kurdish militia that are affiliated with the militants, the Anadolu Agency reported. The targets included military, intelligence, energy and infrastructure facilities and ammunition depots, the report said. A security official said armed drones were used in Thursday's strikes. On Wednesday, Turkiye's air force carried out airstrikes against similar targets in northern Syria and northern Iraq, hours after government officials blamed the deadly attack at the headquarters of the aerospace and defense company TUSAS, on the PKK. Defence Minister Yasar Guler said Thursday that 47 alleged PKK targets were destroyed in Wednesday's airstrikes — 29 in Iraq and 18 in Syria.