Arab League Resumes Activities In Damascus, Mauritanian Ambassador Begins Duties

A beekeeper showcasing his honey production at a festival in Damascus last month (EPA)
A beekeeper showcasing his honey production at a festival in Damascus last month (EPA)
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Arab League Resumes Activities In Damascus, Mauritanian Ambassador Begins Duties

A beekeeper showcasing his honey production at a festival in Damascus last month (EPA)
A beekeeper showcasing his honey production at a festival in Damascus last month (EPA)

The Arab League resumed some of its activities in Damascus for the first time since Nov. 2011, when Arab foreign ministers decided to suspend Syria’s membership in the Arab organization.

On Sunday, the Arab Union for Productive Families and Traditional and Developed Industries launched its regional office in Damascus, during a ceremony held at the Opera House, under the auspices of the Syrian Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor.

The Union is affiliated with the Council of Arab Economic Unity, and aims to promote social and solidarity economy, assist productive families and workers in small occupations and crafts, in addition to traditional industries. The Union also works to help the unemployed, empower them socially and economically and improve their living standard.

During a meeting in Cairo in Nov. 11, the Arab foreign ministers decided to suspend Syria’s participation in the Arab League Council and all affiliated organizations and agencies until it fully implements its pledges and provides protection for Syrian civilians. The decision was followed by the closure of Arab embassies in Damascus or the reduction of their diplomatic representation.

However, sources in Damascus told Asharq Al-Awsat that the activities of some of the organizations and agencies affiliated to the Arab League in Damascus have not stopped over the past years, such as the Radio and TV Training Center, the Arab Academy for E-Business and others.

As the Syrian regime regained control of the capital and most of the Syrian territory in 2018, with the support of Russia, the country resumed its efforts, through delegations and informal contacts, to return to the Arab League.

During a press conference in Moscow with Saudi Foreign Affairs Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan in mid-January, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov revealed that his country and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have agreed on several points related to Syria, including “its return to the Arab family (the League of Arab States).”

In this context, a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Damascus said that Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Al-Meqdad received, on Sunday, the credentials of Ahmed Adi Muhammad Al-Razi, the new ambassador of Mauritania in Damascus.

The Mauritanian embassy is the third Arab country to resume its diplomatic work in Damascus, following the UAE and Bahrain, which re-opened their embassies there in 2018 without appointing an ambassador.



Gaza Civil Defense Says Six Killed in Israeli Strikes

A Palestinian man carries items he salvaged from a house targeted in an Israeli strike at the Nuseirat camp for refugees in the central Gaza Strip on May 24, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian man carries items he salvaged from a house targeted in an Israeli strike at the Nuseirat camp for refugees in the central Gaza Strip on May 24, 2025. (AFP)
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Gaza Civil Defense Says Six Killed in Israeli Strikes

A Palestinian man carries items he salvaged from a house targeted in an Israeli strike at the Nuseirat camp for refugees in the central Gaza Strip on May 24, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian man carries items he salvaged from a house targeted in an Israeli strike at the Nuseirat camp for refugees in the central Gaza Strip on May 24, 2025. (AFP)

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli strikes killed at least six people on Saturday across the Palestinian territory, where Israel has ramped up its military offensive in recent days.

"Our teams have recovered at least six dead," civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

He said a couple were killed with their two young children in a pre-dawn strike on a house in the Amal quarter of the southern city of Khan Younis.

Another two people were killed in a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the territory, he said.

The Israeli military said it was unable to comment on individual strikes without their "precise geographical coordinates".

Israel resumed operations in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire.

Gaza's health ministry said Friday that at least 3,673 people had been killed in the territory since then, taking the war's overall toll to 53,822, mostly civilians.

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Gunmen also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said on Friday that Palestinians were enduring "the cruelest phase" of the war in Gaza, where more than a dozen food trucks were looted following the partial easing of a lengthy Israeli blockade.

The World Food Program called on Israel "to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster", saying: "Hunger, desperation, and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming, is contributing to rising insecurity."

Aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip restarted on Monday for the first time since March 2, amid mounting condemnation of the Israeli blockade, which has resulted in severe shortages of food and medicines.