Author: M Barbu

AMMAN — “Despite the sacrifice of journalists and the large number of those who have given their lives to report the truth, the ceiling of freedom is still very low inside Syria,” Ibrahim Hussein, the director of the Syrian Center for Press Freedoms (SCPF) at the Syrian Journalists Association, told Syria Direct.

Syrian media has witnessed significant transformations through ten years of revolution and war. However, Syrian journalists remain heavily influenced by political actors on all sides, and press freedom has barely improved.

AMMAN – Marwa’s house, located behind Basateen al-Razi in Damascus, is registered in the name of her husband, “who was killed by a bombing of the area in 2012,” she said. That did not stop her husband’s brother from selling “the house to one of the Hezbollah members who surround the city of Darayya city.” However, “I can’t go to the government institutions in Damascus to make a claim for my family’s right to the property,” the displaced woman now living in northwest Syria’s city of Idlib told Syria Direct.

Attacks on Saudi Arabian critical infrastructure and civilians in the region are increasing in frequency as the United States reduces its support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. The Iran-backed Houthis have claimed responsibility for a wave of cross-border attacks, including ballistic missile attacks on an Aramco petroleum distribution center over the weekend. The most recent assaults follow a U.N. investigation that determined the Houthis were responsible for a deadly December 2020 attack on a Yemeni airport, which resulted in the death of at least 22 people. Houthi officials have warned that its strikes would continue. Despite its decreased support for the anti-Houthi coalition, the United States has condemned the Houthi attacks and called for a cessation of violence.

The memo, however, does not specifically say that the renewed US funding would be conditioned on ending the Palestinians’ “pay-to-slay” program. Instead, the Biden administration is only seeking a “commitment” from the Palestinian leadership to end the stipends.

The United States refers to Jordan’s King Abdullah II as an “invaluable and indispensable strategic partner.”

Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, half brother to Jordanian King Abdullah II and a former crown prince, has signed a statement affirming loyalty to the king, seemingly putting an end to the rift among the royal family that had shocked the country over the past two days.

Hamas has been a strongly maligned actor within the western mainstream media. The concise and well written “Engaging the World” by Daud Abdullah presents a clear picture of Hamas’ attempts to act as an international state actor while at the same time continuing its role as a liberation movement against Israeli occupation. It is a very honest work, describing Hamas’ success in presenting a critical pragmatic formulation of its actions for other state actors, at the same time indicating where it has not succeeded, through its own relative political weakness in relation to considerable outside influences.