Kremlin Says Russia Is Continuing to Talk to Syrian Authorities About Fate of Its Military Bases 

This picture shows the Hmeimim Air Base in Syria's Latakia governorate on January 29, 2025. (AFP)
This picture shows the Hmeimim Air Base in Syria's Latakia governorate on January 29, 2025. (AFP)
TT

Kremlin Says Russia Is Continuing to Talk to Syrian Authorities About Fate of Its Military Bases 

This picture shows the Hmeimim Air Base in Syria's Latakia governorate on January 29, 2025. (AFP)
This picture shows the Hmeimim Air Base in Syria's Latakia governorate on January 29, 2025. (AFP)

The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia is continuing to talk to the Syrian authorities about various subjects, including the fate of Moscow's two military bases in the country.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov travelled to Damascus last week for the first talks with Syria's new leaders since President Bashar al-Assad was toppled late last year. Assad and members of his family fled to Moscow.

Russia, whose troops and air force backed Assad for years against Syrian opposition groups, is seeking to retain its naval base in Tartous and its Hmeimim Air Base near the port city of Latakia.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
TT

UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”