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Syria’s Ports Working Normally as Ukraine Looks to Supply Staple Foods

A man works on a cargo ship docked at a terminal of the port of Latakia, Syria, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP)
A man works on a cargo ship docked at a terminal of the port of Latakia, Syria, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP)
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Syria’s Ports Working Normally as Ukraine Looks to Supply Staple Foods

A man works on a cargo ship docked at a terminal of the port of Latakia, Syria, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP)
A man works on a cargo ship docked at a terminal of the port of Latakia, Syria, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP)

Syria's main ports are working normally after days of disruptions, maritime officials said on Monday, and Ukraine said it was in touch with the interim government about delivering staple foods.

President Bashar al-Assad was ousted on Dec. 8 by opposition forces led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group. Since then, Israel has carried out airstrikes around Syria's main port Latakia, and shipping sources also said ports had been short of workers.

On Monday, port official Hasan Jablawi told Reuters that Latakia was functioning normally and cargo ships that had been waiting for several days were unloading.

The Turkish-flagged Med Urla general cargo vessel was among the first ships to discharge and sail from Latakia on Monday, according to LSEG ship tracking data.

Shipping sources said Syria's other main port Tartous was also operating, although there was a backlog to clear.

Russian and Syrian sources said on Friday that Russian wheat supplies to Syria had been suspended after two vessels carrying Russian wheat had failed to reach their destinations in Syria.

Russia, the world's largest wheat exporter, had dominated wheat sales to Syria, according to shipping and trade sources, using complex financial and logistical arrangements to circumvent Western sanctions. Figures on Syria's needs or stock levels were not readily available, however.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday his government would set up mechanisms to deliver food to Syria together with international organisations and partners.

"We can help Syrians with Ukrainian wheat, flour, and oil," he added in his daily wartime address on Sunday.

A Ukrainian industry source confirmed there was active communication with the Syrian administration over food shipments.

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Arab World

ISIS Lashes Out at Syria's Sharaa, Announces ‘New Phase of Operations’

A Syrian government soldier outside Al-Aqtan prison in Raqqa, which holds ISIS detainees (AFP)
A Syrian government soldier outside Al-Aqtan prison in Raqqa, which holds ISIS detainees (AFP)
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ISIS Lashes Out at Syria's Sharaa, Announces ‘New Phase of Operations’

A Syrian government soldier outside Al-Aqtan prison in Raqqa, which holds ISIS detainees (AFP)
A Syrian government soldier outside Al-Aqtan prison in Raqqa, which holds ISIS detainees (AFP)

Syria’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that a Syrian army soldier and a ‌civilian were killed a day earlier by “unknown assailants” in the northern city of Raqqa.

ISIS claimed ‌responsibility for two attacks targeting Syrian army personnel in northern and eastern Syria.

The militant group said on its Dabiq news agency that it had targeted “an individual of the apostate Syrian regime” in the city of Mayadin in Deir Ezzor province using a pistol, and attacked two other personnel with machine guns in Raqqa.

The attacks came after ISIS blasted Syria’s interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, calling him a “puppet without a soul” controlled by Western countries, adding that his fate eventually will be similar to that of ousted leader Bashar Assad.

In an audio message released late Saturday by the group’s spokesman, who identifies himself as Abu Huzaifa al-Ansari, he called on ISIS followers around the world to attack Jewish and Western targets as they have in past years.

The ‌group also said it had begun a “new phase of operations” in Syria.

Al-Ansari sent greetings to ISIS militants from the group’s leader Abu Hafs al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi who was named as the head of the group three years ago.

The audio is the first to be released by the group in months and comes after ISIS was blamed for attacks that left dozens dead or wounded in recent months in Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and other parts of the world.

The latest incidents come two days after ISIS claimed responsibility for another attack in Deir Ezzor that killed a member of the Interior Ministry’s internal security forces and wounded another.

In December, the group was blamed for an attack in central Syria that left three Americans dead and triggered intense US airstrikes on the extremists’ suspected hideouts in the country.

Arab World

Hamas Official Says Group in Final Stage of Choosing New Chief

Tents are erected to house displaced Palestinian families in the al-Zahara neighborhood, north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central of Gaza Strip on February 21, 2026. (Photo by Eyad Baba / AFP)
Tents are erected to house displaced Palestinian families in the al-Zahara neighborhood, north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central of Gaza Strip on February 21, 2026. (Photo by Eyad Baba / AFP)
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Hamas Official Says Group in Final Stage of Choosing New Chief

Tents are erected to house displaced Palestinian families in the al-Zahara neighborhood, north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central of Gaza Strip on February 21, 2026. (Photo by Eyad Baba / AFP)
Tents are erected to house displaced Palestinian families in the al-Zahara neighborhood, north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central of Gaza Strip on February 21, 2026. (Photo by Eyad Baba / AFP)

A senior Hamas official told AFP on Sunday that the Palestinian movement was in the final phase of selecting a new leader, with two prominent figures competing for the position.

Hamas recently completed the formation of a new Shura Council of more than 80 members, a consultative body largely composed of religious scholars, as well as a new 18-member political bureau, the official said.

Since the war in Gaza began after Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Israeli forces have killed several Hamas leaders, including two former chiefs.

"The movement has completed its internal elections in the three regions and has reached the final stage of selecting the head of the political bureau," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly.

According to AFP, he said the race for the group's leadership was now between Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al-Hayya.

A second Hamas source confirmed the development, while a third source said the new leader would lead the movement only "for one year.”

Despite a US-brokered ceasefire that entered its second phase last month, violence has continued in Gaza, with Israel and Hamas blaming each other for violating the agreement.

Members of the council are elected every four years by representatives from Hamas's three branches: the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and the movement's external leadership.

Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails are also eligible to vote.

The council subsequently elects the political bureau, which in turn selects the head of the movement.

Arab World

Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Parliamentary Elections Will Be Held on Time 

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. (Lebanese parliament)
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. (Lebanese parliament)
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Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Parliamentary Elections Will Be Held on Time 

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. (Lebanese parliament)
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. (Lebanese parliament)

Lebanon continues to come under pressure to postpone the parliamentary elections in May with international powers believing that priority in the country lies in disarming Hezbollah and granting Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s government more time to approve financial, economic and administrative reforms.

Israel also continues to apply pressure on Lebanon as it maintains its attacks against Hezbollah, targeting its members and fighters across the country and delivering a message that it has no choice but to disarm.

Despite the pressure, parliament Speaker Nabih Berri stressed that the elections will be held on time.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said he had conveyed this position to the ambassadors of the quintet committee countries, who want to delay the polls.

“I do not support the postponement or the extension of parliament’s term,” he added.

“I was the first to announce my nomination,” he noted, explaining that he did so to block claims that he wanted to delay the elections and extend the term of parliament.

“This is a message to whom it may concern inside Lebanon and beyond: I am committed to seeing the elections through to the end,” Berri declared, saying he had advised several members of his Amal movement to submit their candidacies.

Moreover, the speaker said the postponement “was not justified.”

The elections will be held on time and according to the current electoral law, he vowed. “Those who want to postpone them should assume responsibility for their position and not blame it on others.”

Commenting on the latest Israeli strikes on Lebanon that targeted the central and northern Bekaa in the east, he described them as a “new war aimed at pressuring the country to surrender to Tel Aviv’s conditions.”

A prominent military source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the raids sought to deliver a message to Hezbollah members and fighters that they no longer had a safe place to hide.

Israel can pursue them and assassinate them anywhere, it added.

The success of these attacks means that the Iran-backed party has been breached, something that has been acknowledged by several of its MPs, who have vowed to investigate the issue, it said.