Syria

07 Feb 2023; MEMO: A Syrian official source has categorically denied Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claims that Damascus has requested earthquake relief aid from Tel Aviv, Al-Watan newspaper reported.

AZMARIN, Syria (AP) — A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked wide swaths of Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing more than 1,900 people. Hundreds were still believed to be trapped under rubble, and the toll was expected to rise as rescue workers searched mounds of wreckage in cities and towns across the area.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria on Thursday dismissed the global chemical weapons watchdog’s statement, which said that investigators had found “reasonable grounds to believe” the Syrian air force dropped two cylinders of chlorine gas in 2018 on then-rebel-held town of Douma.

31 Jan 2023; MEMO: Unidentified drones attacked, on Sunday night, a convoy of refrigerated trucks in Al-Herri village in Al-Bukamal countryside in eastern Deir Ez-Zor, eastern Syria, destroying the trucks and killing and injuring people inside them, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SoHR) reported on Monday.

22 Jan 2023; MEMO: The Syrian regime has reportedly agreed to allow the import of goods from Saudi Arabia after a decade-long trade suspension, amid reports of increasing reconciliatory relations between the two Arab nations.

DAMASCUS, Jan 17 (NNN-SANA) – The Syrian Foreign Ministry, yesterday, condemned the U.S. targeting of the Syrian health sector, through “inhuman measures.”

In a statement, the ministry slammed the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), for imposing a new set of sanctions that hinder Syria’s import of medical equipment and spare parts.

Such illegal and unethical sanctions on the Syrian people are “inhuman measures,” and are part of the unilateral siege imposed by the United States, said the statement.

DAMASCUS, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Monday agreed to resume imports from Saudi Arabia after years of stranded relations with the kingdom, according to the online newspaper al-Watan.

Among the planned import products is 10,000 tons of white sugar, said al-Watan, without saying when.

This step could signal a detente between the two countries, after Syria and several other Arab countries have normalized their relations which had deteriorated with the eruption of the Syrian war more than 11 years ago.

16 Jan 2023; MEMO: The shortage of fuel and its unprecedented rise in price have taken a toll on bakeries operating in Syria's regime-held areas, forcing them to make bread just two or three times a week. This has pushed the price of bread up significantly, Anadolu has reported.

With average wages pegged at around $20 per month, the cost of bread has risen to the equivalent of 50 cents a day for a bundle of bread enough for two people. The rate on the black market is even higher.

11 Jan 2023; MEMO: The Syrian regime's Military Intelligence Directorate has arrested six officers of different ranks on charges of "treason" after information was leaked to third parties that led to the assassination of a senior Iranian colonel last November near the capital, Damascus.

ROJ CAMP, Syria (AP) — A woman who ran away from home in Alabama at the age of 20, joined the Islamic State group and had a child with one of its fighters says she still hopes to return to the United States, serve prison time if necessary, and advocate against the extremists.

In a rare interview from the Roj detention camp in Syria where she is being held by U.S.-allied Kurdish forces, Hoda Muthana said she was brainwashed by online traffickers into joining the group in 2014 and regrets everything except her young son.