Middle East Experience

The Islamist takeover of Syria has left Egypt apprehensive and cautiously calibrating future ties, years after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came to power by toppling the Muslim Brotherhood.Egypt backed president Bashar al-Assad until the eleventh hour, and with the Islamists of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) now in control in Syria, it worries what impact the change might have.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Egypt apprehensive over Islamist win in Syria

Rescuers in Gaza said on Saturday that Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory killed more than 30 people, the day after Hamas militants said peace talks were to resume.The civil defence agency said a dawn air strike on the home of the al-Ghoula family in Gaza City killed 11 people, seven of them children.AFP images from the Gaza City area neighbourhood of Shujaiya showed residents combing through smoking rubble. Bodies including those of small children were lined up on the ground, shrouded in white sheets.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Gaza rescuers says 31 killed in Israeli strikes

Umayyad Square in Damascus hummed to the throngs of people brandishing "revolution" flags as Syria saw in the new year with hope following 13 years of civil war.Gunshots rang out from Mount Qasioun overlooking the capital where hundreds of people gazed up at fireworks, an AFP reporter at the square saw.It was the first new year's celebration without an Assad in power for more than 50 years after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December."Long live Syria, Assad has fallen," shouted some children.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: New year hope and joy reign in a Damascus freed from Assad

Syria's minister of information in the country's transitional government told AFP he is working towards a free press and committed to "freedom of expression", after decades of tight control under the country's former rulers."We are working to consolidate freedoms of the press and expression that were severely restricted" in areas controlled by the former government of Bashar al-Assad, said the minister, Mohamed al-Omar, after Islamist-led rebels on December 8 ended more than five decades of rule by the Assad clan.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Syria's new information minister promises free press

US president Jimmy Carter, who died on Monday, left an enduring legacy when he brokered historic peace between Egypt and Israel -- tepid and shaky, but unbroken even by the nearly 15-month long Gaza war."For 45 years we've had no war" with Egypt, said Ruth Wasserman Lande, a former Israeli diplomat in Cairo.But, she told AFP, "I would not go as far as to say it's a peace."
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Carter's Middle East peace legacy survives, but mostly in name

Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike killed at least 15 people in the territory's north on Wednesday, in what it called the first deadly attack of the New Year."The world welcomed the New Year with celebrations and festivities, while we witnessed 2025 begin with the first Israeli massacre in the town of Jabalia just after midnight," agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP."Fifteen people were martyred and more than 20 were injured" in the strike on a house where displaced people were living, he said.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Gaza rescuers say 15 killed in Israeli New Year strike

The Jerusalem Post interviewed Saar 6 officers who face threats from Lebanon, Gaza, Iran, and Yemen.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Inside the electronic warfare of the navy’s most advanced ship

The Palestinian Authority is determined to score a win against militants in the Israeli-occupied West Bank ahead of Donald Trump's presidency, aiming to demonstrate its ability to control post-war Gaza, analysts told AFP.The security forces of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited control over the West Bank, have been engaged in deadly clashes with gunmen since early December, triggered by the arrests of several militants.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Anticipating Trump, Palestinian Authority eager to crush militants: analysts

Major Jewish organization leaders called on the Pope to refrain from 'incendiary comments' about the Israel-Hamas War.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Jewish leaders to pope: Build bridges, don’t fuel antisemitism

Parts of Syria remain in stasis despite the country's recent massive upheaval.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Syria set to be 2025’s big story: Can Damascus unite a fractured nation?