The Latest Breaking News from Damascus

At Hammam Bakri in Damascus’ Old City, Syrian men wrapped in towels from the waist down lie down on a scalding marble floor

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that “dealing with changes in reality and Arab society requires changing the political approach and thinking.” This came during his meeting with the Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi in Damascus. According to state-owned SANA, Assad and Albusaidi reviewed “the distinguished relations that bind Syria…

The United States is "never going to normalize" relations with Damascus, White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk said on Thursday. In a virtual seminar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, McGurk commented recent moves made by some countries in the Middle East to restore ties with Assad. "We…

Lebanon signed a U.S.-backed deal with Jordan on Wednesday that aims to ease crippling power shortages by transmitting electricity across neighbouring Syria, after Washington assured Beirut it should not fear its sanctions on Damascus.

Prominent figures in Damascus launched an attack against the Syrian government for to its “failure to provide means of heating.” Amid a severe cold wave sweeping all Syrian regions and the lack of means of heating, prominent Syrian actor Firas Ibrahim wrote a post on his Facebook page, which read:…

Syrian and Russian military jets jointly patrolled the airspace along Syria’s borders on Monday and plan to make such flights regular, the Interfax news agency quoted Russia’s defense ministry as saying. According to RIA Novosti, the Russian pilots took off from the Hmeimim Air Base, while the Syrian pilots departed…

On January 13, in the first European trial against a high-ranking Syrian regime official, a former senior intelligence officer was sentenced to life in prison in Germany for crimes against humanity. Former head of interrogation at a detention centre in Damascus, Anwar Raslan was found guilty on 4,000 counts of…

Geneva is hosting two meetings on Friday. The first between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, to discuss Ukraine, and the second between UN Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen and US Official Ethan Goldrich to review the Syrian situation and propose a “step for…

Five Roman artifacts from the ancient city of Palmyra, a site damaged during Syria's decade-long conflict, were returned to Damascus on Thursday by a private Lebanese museum where they had been on display since 2018. The limestone statues and carved funerary stones dating from the Roman second and third centuries…