Orientul Mijlociu

An explosion at the Latakia port in Syria on Tuesday left an unidentified ship on fire, according to local reports, with some suggesting that the affected vessel had been used to transfer Iranian oil to Syria in the past.

Smoke was seen billowing from a ship moored at Latakia port and identified by the TankerTrackers.com monitoring website as the Wisdom, a Panama-flagged, Beirut-registered vessel, which was previously targeted by a mysterious explosion this year.

Security forces affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham forced gas stations to close in areas controlled by Turkish-backed factions and set up a temporary checkpoint there.

Well-informed sources told Al-Monitor that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s security apparatus has shut down several gas stations near the Ghazawiya crossing in the western countryside of Aleppo. The crossing separates the HTS-controlled areas in Idlib and the western countryside of Aleppo from and the areas controlled by the Sham Legion, a faction affiliated with the Free Syrian Army.

CIA Director William Burns met with the new Israeli prime minister on Wednesday as talks to revive the landmark nuclear deal remained deadlocked.

CIA Director William Burns and Israeli Prime Naftali Bennett met in Tel Aviv on Wednesday to discuss Iran amid increased tensions over the faltering nuclear deal talks and a series of maritime incidents blamed on the Islamic Republic.

Regime shelling has killed four children in Syria’s last major rebel bastion in the northwest of the country, a Britain-based war monitor said Sunday.

The artillery fire late on Saturday hit a residential area in the south of the jihadist-dominated bastion of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leaders in Idlib are investing their money in various economic sectors, as part of money laundering operations to control resources and economic activity in their areas of control.

Prominent leaders in Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which controls Idlib and its surroundings in northwestern Syria, are seeking to invest their money in various economic sectors in the area. It seems that these efforts, which could amount to money laundering operations, are encouraged by the HTS leadership, which wants to have various sources of support to help it survive and increase its power and influence.

Executive Summary

The subject of Western sanctions on Syria is a divisive one among analysts and policymakers interested in ending the misery of the country’s citizens. The division comes at a time when, more than ever, the country needs a comprehensive policy that ends the agony of most Syrians. This study assesses the effectiveness of the sanctions imposed on the regime of Bashar al-Assad by conducting a comprehensive review of their history, evaluating shortcomings in the current setup, and recommending ways to move forward.

The leader of Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that his group had chosen to respond to Israeli airstrikes on open land, but could escalate its actions in the future.

No strikes were reported on Saturday, and no casualties have been reported thus far.

On Friday, Hezbollah fired rockets towards Israeli forces, drawing retaliatory fire from Israel into south Lebanon. Both sides targeted open land, indicating that they did not wish to escalate the salvos further.

There is no doubt that the coup led by President Kais Saied in Tunisia has caused a major tremor in Arab societies yearning for freedom and democracy. They could smell the aroma of freedom from the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, the cradle of the Arab Spring. Tunisia gave them hope after the counter-revolutions in Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Libya ended regional optimism.

Turkey is allegedly planning to use Syrian fighters in its proposed mission to guard and run Kabul’s airport, but this time recruitment is expected to proceed via private security firms.

Turkey’s government appears to have learned little from the troubles it has faced for deploying Syrian fighters in the wars in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, as media reports suggest it is now out to recruit mercenaries for its planned mission to secure Kabul’s airport after the US-led NATO mission completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan.