The Latest Breaking News from Damascus

In this special edition of Middle East Matters, we focus on the aftermath of last week's deadly earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Tens of thousands dead and millions in desperate need of basic food-stuffs, water, shelter and medical aid - frustration mounts over the response of Ankara and Damascus -…

While international teams poured into Turkey to mount a furious search and rescue effort following the massive earthquake on February 6, the response on the other side of the border in Syria was catastrophically slow.

Thousands of people have been killed in Syria by the earthquake that struck its border region with Turkey on Feb. 6 but aid has been slow to reach the most affected areas.

The European Union's envoy to Syria said early on Sunday that it was not fair to accuse the group of failing to provide enough help to Syrians following the earthquake that devastated large parts of Syria and Turkey last week.

Aid deliveries to tens of thousands of Syrians caught up in this week’s earthquake are being hampered by wrangling between rival powers in the country’s more than decade-long war.

It didn’t take long for Syria’s Assad regime to seek political and economic benefit from the devastation of an earthquake. As emergency services were reaching victims of the 7.8-magnitude tremor on February 6, regime-linked organisations demanded governments “immediately end the siege and unilateral coercive economic sanctions imposed on Syria and…

The United States on Thursday announced an initial $85 million aid package to help Türkiye and Syria recover from the devastating earthquake, while also granting a temporary relief of some Damascus-related sanctions. The 7.8-magnitude quake struck early Monday near the Turkish-Syrian border, and by Friday morning the death toll in…

President Bashar al-Assad is seeking political advantage from an earthquake that has devastated large parts of Syria and Turkey, pressing for foreign aid to be delivered through his territory as he aims to chip away at his international isolation, analysts say.

The first aid convoy to reach Syria’s rebel-held northwest since the devastating earthquake brought medicine, blankets tents and shelter kits on Thursday.