Syria’s interior minister revealed yesterday (Thursday May 22) that 8.2 million Syrians– over a third of the country’s population - were wanted for arrest or banned from travel by the deposed Assad regime, explaining that the Ministry of Interior is currently working to resolve the problem. The new government has already removed over 5.2 million names from the list of individuals wanted by the ousted regime for reasons related to military service, he revealed, with approximately 3 million cases still being addressed, including more than 1,130,000 state employees.

The European Union yesterday (Wednesday May 21) announced a formal review of its decades-old Association Agreement with Israel, citing the "catastrophic" humanitarian situation in Gaza. This decision comes amid mounting international criticism of Israel's military actions, which have resulted in over 53,000 Palestinian deaths since October 2023, with over 100 civilians killed in Israeli bombardment of Gaza on Wednesday and at least 38 civilians by noon today.

US President Donald Trump today concludes a historic whirlwind Middle East tour, but the message he leaves behind is louder than any press conference: Saudi Arabia is in ascendance, and Israel — under Benjamin Netanyahu — is being shown the door.

Russia’s ambassador to Turkey, Alexei Yerkhov, on Tuesday offered his country’s help in stabilizing Syria, warning that the country’s unity is under growing threat. Speaking to Turkish media, Yerkhov pointed to worsening sectarian tensions, infrastructure collapse, and expanding Israeli control in the south, adding: “It is clear that the country is experiencing internal divisions, with the potential for these divisions to worsen.”

In a statement that might have been mistaken for satire if it weren’t official policy, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian announced this week that Iran would "pause engagement" with Syria "until stability is restored."

The remark, from an interview with Russia Today, also published by Russian state news agency TASS on Friday, comes just over four months after the collapse of the Assads' bloody regime, propped up by Tehran for almost 14 years.

Britain’s Lord Peter Hain, formerly Tony Blair’s foreign minister, has uncharacteristically expressed concern about human rights in Syria, though only insofar as these extend to the PKK/SDF, which has been reliant on Western military support since 2014.

After the US government announced on Monday (December 9) that it is to impose sanctions on Fawaz al-Akhras, the father of Asma al-Assad, the ‘First Lady of Hell’, now in Moscow with her deposed tyrant husband, attention is turning to the other connections of the Assads and their extended family.

Following a brutal attack at a festival in Solingen, west Germany on Friday night, in which three people were stabbed to death and eight others injured, German police have arrested a 26-year-old Syrian man who reportedly handed himself in and admitted to carrying out the mass killing.

Assad-allied Lebanese PM warns of Lebanon’s “total collapse”, blaming “Syrian displacement crisis”

A Western propagandist for Assad’s regime, hosted on a regime TV talk show in a bid to boost the regime's image, instead unintentionally exposed Assad's media, putting the host in an embarrassing situation, and showing up the program, which is based on using foreign guests to polish Bashar al-Assad's image and put a positive spin on the real situation in the areas controlled by his militias.