Syrian Foreign Minister Visits Tehran

Syria's Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad, with Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. (SANA)
Syria's Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad, with Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. (SANA)
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Syrian Foreign Minister Visits Tehran

Syria's Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad, with Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. (SANA)
Syria's Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad, with Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. (SANA)

Syria's Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad arrived in Tehran on Sunday for a two-day visit at the invitation of his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

The visit aims to boost strategic relations between the two countries, according to Syria's al-Watan newspaper.

Deputy Foreign Minister Bashar al-Jaafari is accompanying Mekdad, who is heading an official delegation, on the trip.

The visit comes days after Damascus received an Iranian economic delegation headed by the Iranian Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade Reza Fatemi Amin.

The delegation met several senior officials in Damascus at the opening of the exhibition of Iranian products and services in the capital.

They also launched the Syrian-Iranian Investment Forum last week, in conjunction with the announcement of a joint bank to facilitate trade and financial exchange between the two countries.

The Syrian-Iranian economic and diplomatic activity witnessed a remarkable increase, with the gradual return of Arab economic-diplomatic relations, especially from the United Arab Emirates.

Last week, Damascus hosted its first Arab economic conference since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict in 2011.

Iran's state-owned IRNA reported that the UAE's National Security Adviser, Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, will visit Iran Monday at the invitation of the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani to discuss expanding bilateral ties.



Bird Feathers, Blood Found in Both Engines of Crashed Jet in South Korea, Source Says

Firefighters remove tarpaulin sheets covering the debris of a Jeju Air passenger plane at Muan International Airport in Muan, southwestern South Korea, 13 January 2025, following its crash on 29 December 2024. (EPA/Yonhap)
Firefighters remove tarpaulin sheets covering the debris of a Jeju Air passenger plane at Muan International Airport in Muan, southwestern South Korea, 13 January 2025, following its crash on 29 December 2024. (EPA/Yonhap)
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Bird Feathers, Blood Found in Both Engines of Crashed Jet in South Korea, Source Says

Firefighters remove tarpaulin sheets covering the debris of a Jeju Air passenger plane at Muan International Airport in Muan, southwestern South Korea, 13 January 2025, following its crash on 29 December 2024. (EPA/Yonhap)
Firefighters remove tarpaulin sheets covering the debris of a Jeju Air passenger plane at Muan International Airport in Muan, southwestern South Korea, 13 January 2025, following its crash on 29 December 2024. (EPA/Yonhap)

Investigators found bird feathers and blood in both engines of the Jeju Air jet that crashed in South Korea last month, killing 179 people, a person familiar with the probe told Reuters on Friday.

The Boeing 737-800 plane, which departed from the Thai capital Bangkok for Muan county in southwestern South Korea, belly-landed and overshot the regional airport's runway, bursting into flames after hitting an embankment.

Only two crew members at the tail end of the plane survived the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil.

About four minutes before the fatal crash, one of the pilots reported a bird strike and declared an emergency before initiating a go-around and attempting to land on the opposite end of the runway, according to South Korean authorities.

Two minutes before the pilot declared the Mayday emergency call, air traffic control had urged caution due to "bird activity" in the area.

Investigators this month said feathers were found on one of the engines recovered from the crash scene, adding that video footage showed there was a bird strike on an engine.

South Korea's transport ministry declined to comment on whether feathers and blood were found in both engines.

The plane's two black boxes - key to finding out the cause of last month's crash on the jet - stopped recording about four minutes before the accident, posing a challenge to the ongoing investigation.

Sim Jai-dong, a former transport ministry accident investigator, said on Sunday the missing data was surprising and suggested all power, including backup, may have been cut, which is rare.

Bird strikes that impact both engines are also rare occurrences in aviation globally, though there have been successful cases of pilots landing the plane without fatalities in such situations including the "Miracle on the Hudson" river landing in the US in 2009 and a cornfield landing in Russia in 2019.