US Navy Sends Guided-missile Submarine to Middle East https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/4260611/us-navy-sends-guided-missile-submarine-middle-east
US Navy Sends Guided-missile Submarine to Middle East
US Navy 5th Fleet spokesman Commander Tim Hawkins at 5th Fleet headquarters in the Bahraini capital Manama in 2021. AFP
The US Navy said on Saturday a nuclear-powered guided-missile submarine was operating in the Middle East in support of the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet.
The USS Florida entered the region on Thursday and began transiting the Suez Canal, Commander Timothy Hawkins said in a statement.
"It is capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles and is deployed to US 5th Fleet to help ensure regional maritime security and stability," Hawkins said.
Syria Says Arrested Assad-Era Officer Specializing in Chemical Weaponshttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5296400-syria-says-arrested-assad-era-officer-specializing-chemical-weapons
People sit across from a poster depicting Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in a gas mask during an event in the opposition-held northern city of Afrin, on August 20, 2023, marking the 10-year anniversary of chemical attacks that killed over 1,400 people in Ghouta, near the capital. (AFP)
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Syria Says Arrested Assad-Era Officer Specializing in Chemical Weapons
People sit across from a poster depicting Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in a gas mask during an event in the opposition-held northern city of Afrin, on August 20, 2023, marking the 10-year anniversary of chemical attacks that killed over 1,400 people in Ghouta, near the capital. (AFP)
Syrian authorities announced on Wednesday the arrest of a former officer they say was a chemical weapons specialist in charge of sarin gas depots and chemical weapons manufacturing during ousted President Bashar al-Assad's era.
Since Assad's fall in December 2024, authorities have arrested dozens of people they say committed crimes during the country's 13-year civil war, and started trials in April.
The interior ministry said security forces had arrested Colonel Ahmed Habib Ali, calling him "a chemical weapons expert".
Colonel Ahmed Habib Ali after his arrest. (Syrian Interior Ministry)
It also said he "was responsible for sarin gas storage facilities and chemical manufacturing within Unit 417", a key chemical weapons storage facility near the capital, Damascus.
According to the ministry, Ali was "one of the officers who supervised the manufacture of about 20 bombs loaded with sarin gas, each weighing 250 kilograms, which were used in attacks targeting Syrian cities and towns in 2013 and 2017".
In the first and deadliest instance in August 2013, the army was accused of using chemical weapons to target areas then under opposition control, killing more than 1,400 men, women and children, according to US intelligence and rights groups.
An aerial view shows a mass grave where are buried those who were killed by the sarin struck during a 2013 chemical weapons attack that was blamed on then President Bashar al-Assad's forces, in Zamalka neighborhood, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP)
With Syria at the height of its civil war, the Assad government agreed to hand over its chemical arsenal in order to avert US strikes.
Between 2014 and 2017, Damascus was accused of launching four further attacks on towns controlled by opposition factions, using sarin and chlorine gas.
Ali's arrest comes after Syria was reinstated into the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) last week.
The OPCW had stripped Syria of its voting rights in 2021 after finding its air force had used sarin and chlorine gas on its own people.
In April, Syria's judiciary began a series of public trials for former officials on various charges, some of which amount to war crimes committed after the outbreak of popular protests in 2011, which were violently suppressed by the authorities.
Lebanon, Israel Conclude US-Brokered Talks on ‘Pilot Zones’ in Romehttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5296396-lebanon-israel-conclude-us-brokered-talks-%E2%80%98pilot-zones%E2%80%99-rome
This photograph shows the US embassy in Rome on July 14, 2026, on the first day of talks between the Lebanese and Israeli delegations on the backdrop of a regional escalation between Washington and Tehran. (AFP)
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Lebanon, Israel Conclude US-Brokered Talks on ‘Pilot Zones’ in Rome
This photograph shows the US embassy in Rome on July 14, 2026, on the first day of talks between the Lebanese and Israeli delegations on the backdrop of a regional escalation between Washington and Tehran. (AFP)
Lebanon and Israel concluded US-brokered talks in Rome on Wednesday, with a US official saying they had made progress on implementing a plan that could see Israeli forces begin to withdraw from some parts of southern Lebanon within days.
The two longtime foes held ambassador-level talks at the US embassy in Rome on Tuesday and Wednesday — their sixth round of face-to-face negotiations since a new war erupted on March 2 between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, triggered by the wider regional conflict.
Under a US-brokered June 26 framework deal, Lebanon and Israel agreed to implement a "pilot zone" project that would see the disarmament of armed groups — an apparent reference to Hezbollah — as well as the deployment of Lebanese troops to the south and the progressive withdrawal of Israeli forces still occupying Lebanese land.
In written comments distributed to journalists, a US official described the two days of talks as "productive and positive".
"We agreed on the structure and guidelines for the pilot zone process, to be finalized and implemented in the coming days," the official said.
The official said talks would move to a technical phase to implement the framework deal and reach a "comprehensive agreement between Israel and Lebanon."
There was no immediate comment from either Lebanon or Israel on progress made in the talks.
Israel's military is occupying what it describes as a "buffer zone" about 10 km (6 miles) into Lebanon along the entire length of the Israeli border. Israeli officials say the zone is necessary to protect northern Israeli communities from attacks launched by Hezbollah.
Lebanon has called for Israel to begin withdrawing immediately, but Israel has said its troops would remain in southern Lebanon as long as Hezbollah remained armed.
The direct talks have continued despite intermittent deadly Israeli strikes and strong objections from Hezbollah, which rejects disarming and says only pressure from its ally Iran can secure an end to the war and Israel's withdrawal.
Lebanon Parliament to Discuss Sweeping Amnesty Billhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5296394-lebanon-parliament-discuss-sweeping-amnesty-bill
A general view shows the parliament building, ahead of the parliamentary election, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon May 12, 2022. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Parliament to Discuss Sweeping Amnesty Bill
A general view shows the parliament building, ahead of the parliamentary election, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon May 12, 2022. (Reuters)
Lebanon's parliament commenced a legislative session on Wednesday to discuss and vote on several bills, including an amnesty law that could cover swathes of prisoners.
More than 40 draft laws will be discussed and voted on in the two-day session, the most prominent being the abolition of the death penalty, which has not been carried out in years, and the amnesty.
For years, parliament has been trying to pass a general amnesty bill, whose primary goal is to reduce overcrowding in Lebanon's prisons, without gaining consensus due to sectarian and political divisions regarding who would benefit from it.
Amnesty has been a demand for families of Islamist prisoners, some of them accused of attacking the Lebanese army, participating in clashes in the northern city of Tripoli and planning bombings.
Thousands of families from the eastern Baalbek and Hermel regions, bastions of Hezbollah and its ally Amal where illicit cannabis cultivation is widespread, have also been demanding amnesty for drug-related offences and theft.
Relatives of those who fled to Israel after its withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, fearing reprisals, particularly from Hezbollah and its supporters, also want their family members covered.
Lebanon previously passed a general amnesty law in the wake of its 1975-90 civil war, allowing former warlords to transition into politics without facing trial for crimes committed during the conflict.
Parliament will also vote on the abolition of the death penalty, last carried out in Lebanon in 2004.
Capital punishment prevents Lebanon from extraditing criminals who have fled to countries that have abolished the penalty.
Wednesday's legislative session is the first held by parliament since it postponed elections by two years in March due to the Israel-Hezbollah war.
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