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Syrian FM: No Normal Ties with Türkiye without End to Occupation 

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad speaks during a joint news conference with Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2023. (Reuters)
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad speaks during a joint news conference with Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2023. (Reuters)
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Syrian FM: No Normal Ties with Türkiye without End to Occupation 

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad speaks during a joint news conference with Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2023. (Reuters)
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad speaks during a joint news conference with Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2023. (Reuters)

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad said on Saturday that Türkiye would have to end its military presence in his country to achieve a full rapprochement. 

"We cannot talk about resuming normal ties with Türkiye without removing the occupation," he said after meeting his Iranian counterpart in Damascus. 

Türkiye has been a major backer of the political and armed opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the 12-year conflict in Syria, and has sent its own troops into swathes of the country's north. 

Russia, a key ally of Assad, is supporting a rapprochement between Damascus and Ankara, hosting talks between their defense ministers last month and aiming for meetings between the foreign ministers and eventually presidents. 

Mikdad said on Saturday "a meeting between Assad and the Turkish leadership depends on removing the reasons for the dispute," without providing more details or mentioning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by name. 

Mekdad was speaking after meeting in Damascus with Hossein Amirabdollahian, the foreign minister of Assad’s other main ally, Iran. 

Amirabdollahian, who also met Assad on Saturday, said on Friday that Iran was "happy with the dialogue taking place between Syria and Türkiye". 

Assad said on Friday the results should be based on the principle of ending the occupation and support for terrorism, a term that Syrian authorities use to refer to all opposition armed groups. 

A source with close knowledge of the negotiations said Syria wanted Türkiye to pull its troops from swathes of the north and to halt support to three main opposition factions. 

The source said Syria was keen to see progress on those demands through follow-up committees before agreeing to a foreign ministers' meeting. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday he could meet Mikdad early in February, rejecting reports the two could meet next week. 

Syria has made no official comment on the timing of any such meeting, which would mark the highest-level talks between Ankara and Damascus since the Syrian war began in 2011. 

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Arab World

Lebanon Death Toll from War Rises to 217 as Israel Presses Strikes

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on March 6, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on March 6, 2026. (AFP)
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Lebanon Death Toll from War Rises to 217 as Israel Presses Strikes

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on March 6, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on March 6, 2026. (AFP)

Israeli air strikes battered Lebanon on Friday, sending the death toll since Monday up to at least 217, according to Lebanese authorities, as the premier warned "a humanitarian disaster is looming". 

The Israeli military renewed its strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs Friday afternoon, Lebanese state media reported, following night raids that left heavy damage in the area after residents fled en masse in response to Israeli evacuation warnings. 

Israel says it has killed "over 70" members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. 

A live broadcast by AFP showed plumes of smoke rising above buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs, a typically densely populated area where Hezbollah holds sway. 

Speaking to foreign ambassadors Friday, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said "the consequences of this displacement, at the humanitarian and political level, may well be unprecedented". 

According to Lebanese authorities, at least 217 people have been killed and 798 wounded since Israel's expanded attacks on Monday, with more than 95,000 people displaced. 

"Our country has been drawn into a devastating war that we did not seek and did not choose," Salam said. 

"Those who were forced to leave their homes are not and should not be held responsible for the suffering inflicted on them," he added. 

On Monday, the Lebanese government banned Hezbollah's military activities after it launched rockets on Israel to "avenge" Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, pulling Lebanon into the Middle East war. 

On Friday, in a message posted in Hebrew on the group's Telegram channels, Hezbollah told Israelis to evacuate all localities "located within 5 kilometers of the border". 

Israel has continued to strike dozens of areas in southern and eastern Lebanon, including Sidon, where five people were killed according to Lebanon's health ministry. 

An AFP photographer at the scene saw extensive damage in the targeted apartment and shattered glass on the street. 

Rescue workers meanwhile recovered a body from under the rubble and collected body parts scattered around the area. 

Further south in Tyre, home to a UNESCO World Heritage site, the NNA reported a major strike. 

- Southern suburbs - 

The Israeli military announced Friday that it had carried out 26 waves of strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs in the past four days. 

It added that Hezbollah had fired around 70 rockets toward Israel since midnight, and that the Lebanese group had launched coordinated attacks with Iran on Thursday. 

Rubble and dust covered a main road in one neighborhood of Beirut's suburbs Friday, while the buildings surrounding it were heavily damaged, AFPTV footage showed. 

After the Israeli evacuation warning on Thursday afternoon, there was a mass exodus from the area, whose population is estimated at between 600,000 and 800,000. 

Mohammad, 39, a resident of the southern suburbs, fled with his family when the bombing began on Monday. 

Returning on Thursday to check on his home and collect belongings just minutes before the Israeli evacuation warning, he said he "went down and found total chaos". 

Fatima al-Masri, 45, also escaped the southern suburbs and has been sheltering in central Beirut's Martyrs' Square for four days. 

"We want to eat and drink... we want to go to the bathroom," she said, adding that she "came here because the schools are full". 

- Strikes on south - 

Since Monday, Israel has ordered the evacuation of hundreds of square kilometers of southern Lebanon and sent ground forces across the border. 

The Israeli army chief on Thursday said he ordered forces deployed in southern Lebanon to expand their control inside south Lebanon. 

Hezbollah, for its part, claimed on Friday new attacks against northern Israel, including one the day before on a naval base in Haifa. 

Hezbollah also announced at dawn on Friday that it had targeted a cluster of Israeli vehicles advancing toward the town of Khiam, about six kilometers from the border, and "forced them to retreat". 

Arab World

Norway Aid Group Says Israeli Strikes Have Displaced 300,000 in Lebanon

Displaced residents who fled Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs sit on the floor at the corniche waterfront in Beirut, Lebanon, 06 March 2026. (EPA)
Displaced residents who fled Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs sit on the floor at the corniche waterfront in Beirut, Lebanon, 06 March 2026. (EPA)
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Norway Aid Group Says Israeli Strikes Have Displaced 300,000 in Lebanon

Displaced residents who fled Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs sit on the floor at the corniche waterfront in Beirut, Lebanon, 06 March 2026. (EPA)
Displaced residents who fled Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs sit on the floor at the corniche waterfront in Beirut, Lebanon, 06 March 2026. (EPA)

Aid agency the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said Friday that 300,000 people in Lebanon had been forced to flee after Israel launched a wave of evacuation orders and airstrikes.

The aid agency also questioned the legality of the mass-evacuation orders Israel had issued there.

The orders cover hundreds of villages in South Lebanon, as well as villages in the Bekaa region and the southern suburbs of Beirut, constituting a large area of Lebanese territory.

It added that the number of people who might be displaced could potentially exceed one million.

"Israel's evacuation orders demanding civilians leave multiple areas of Lebanon raise serious concerns under international humanitarian law, which prohibits the forcible transfer of civilian populations," the NRC said.

"These orders do not appear to have military justification and provide no guarantee of safe passage or support for those fleeing and compound the suffering of hundreds of thousands of families."

The organization insisted that civilians be protected, including those who choose to remain or are not able to relocate.

Lebanon's health ministry said Friday at least 217 people had been killed and 798 wounded since the start of a new war between Israel and Hezbollah on Monday.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned Friday that "a humanitarian disaster is looming" due to mass displacement.

Arab World

Iraq's Kurdish Authorities Say 'Attack' Shuts US-run Oil Field

A flame rises from a chimney at Taq Taq oil field in Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region, August 16, 2014. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari/File Photo
A flame rises from a chimney at Taq Taq oil field in Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region, August 16, 2014. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari/File Photo
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Iraq's Kurdish Authorities Say 'Attack' Shuts US-run Oil Field

A flame rises from a chimney at Taq Taq oil field in Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region, August 16, 2014. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari/File Photo
A flame rises from a chimney at Taq Taq oil field in Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region, August 16, 2014. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari/File Photo

Iraqi Kurdish authorities said on Friday that oil production at an oil field operated by US firm HKN Energy has been halted following an attack.

A security source told AFP the attack was carried out with two drones the previous day.

The natural resources ministry in the northern Kurdistan region said in a statement "yesterday, an outlaw group in Iraq launched a terrorist attack on the HKN oil field in the Sarsang area" in Dohuk province, damaging the field and "halting production".

The autonomous Kurdistan region has been pulled into the war engulfing the Middle East, suffering mostly from drone attacks on US bases and interests there.

Several Iran-backed armed groups -- known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq -- claim daily drone attacks on US bases.

Drones have repeatedly been intercepted over Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region, which hosts US-led coalition troops and a major US consulate complex.

On Tuesday, a source at an oil company in Kurdistan told AFP that most foreign oil companies had temporarily halted production as a precautionary measure.