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Israeli Defense Minister Orders Troops to Prepare to Spend Winter on Mount Hermon

08 December 2024, Israel, Golan Heights: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Defense Minister Israel Katz (L) visit an observation point on Mt. Bental on the Golan Heights bordering Syria. Photo: Koby Gideon/GPO/dpa
08 December 2024, Israel, Golan Heights: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Defense Minister Israel Katz (L) visit an observation point on Mt. Bental on the Golan Heights bordering Syria. Photo: Koby Gideon/GPO/dpa
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Israeli Defense Minister Orders Troops to Prepare to Spend Winter on Mount Hermon

08 December 2024, Israel, Golan Heights: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Defense Minister Israel Katz (L) visit an observation point on Mt. Bental on the Golan Heights bordering Syria. Photo: Koby Gideon/GPO/dpa
08 December 2024, Israel, Golan Heights: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Defense Minister Israel Katz (L) visit an observation point on Mt. Bental on the Golan Heights bordering Syria. Photo: Koby Gideon/GPO/dpa

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has ordered Israeli troops to prepare to stay over the winter on Mount Hermon, a strategic location overlooking Damascus, adding to signs that Israel's presence in Syria is set to continue for a prolonged period.
"Due to what is happening in Syria - there is enormous security importance to our holding on to the peak of Mount Hermon," a statement from Katz's office said on Friday.
The order suggests that Israeli troops who moved into a buffer zone inside Syrian territory as well as a "few additional points" following the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad's government are likely to remain.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the troops would remain until there was an effective force in place to enforce the Separation of Forces Agreement signed following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
Israel has called the move a limited and temporary measure to ensure the security of its borders but it is unclear when it will judge the situation in Syria stable enough to pull its forces back.
Katz said the severe winter weather on Mount Hermon, a peak of 2,800 meters (9,186 feet) that straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon, made special preparations for a prolonged stay by Israeli troops a necessity.
A number of countries have condemned Israel's incursion, calling it a breach of the agreement that followed the Arab-Israeli war. But the United States has offered its support, saying the move was necessary for Israel's self-defense.
As well as moving troops into the buffer zone, Israel has also destroyed the bulk of the Syrian military's arsenal of weapons and ammunition in hundreds of air and naval strikes this week, a move it said was aimed at preventing the equipment falling into the hand of hostile forces.

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World

WHO Says Six Hospitals Evacuated in Iran, System Holding Up

Emergency personnel work at the site of a strike on a residential building, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 16, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
Emergency personnel work at the site of a strike on a residential building, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 16, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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WHO Says Six Hospitals Evacuated in Iran, System Holding Up

Emergency personnel work at the site of a strike on a residential building, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 16, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
Emergency personnel work at the site of a strike on a residential building, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 16, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

A World Health Organization official said on Monday that the US-Israeli war on Iran had led to the evacuation of six hospitals but that so far the system appeared to be holding up and authorities had not sought emergency relief from the WHO.

"The primary healthcare and the health infrastructure of Iran is quite good and ‌robust, and ‌they're able to accommodate the casualties ‌as ⁠of now," WHO ⁠regional director Hanan Balkhy told Reuters.

Iran's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, said on Monday that more than 1,300 people had been killed in Iran since the conflict began on February 28, ⁠and more than 7,000 had been injured.

The ‌WHO, which has ‌an office in Tehran and regularly helps Iranian ‌authorities with disease management, has verified 18 attacks ‌on healthcare facilities and the killing of eight medics.

Balkhy said the WHO had contingency plans to move in emergency supplies should the situation ‌deteriorate further. One potential risk is that "black rain" caused by toxic compounds carried ⁠in ⁠smoke from oil facilities that have been set on fire puts an extra burden on the healthcare system through respiratory infections, she added.

The conflict had forced the WHO to suspend flights carrying emergency medical supplies from its humanitarian hub in Dubai, but Balkhy said these had now resumed.

Requests from 25 member countries are being processed, but a WHO spokesperson said polio treatments were among those still waiting.

World

China Warns Trump's Latest Tariff Moves Could Damage Trade Ties

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping react as they hold a bilateral meeting at Gimhae International Airport, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Busan, South Korea, October 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping react as they hold a bilateral meeting at Gimhae International Airport, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Busan, South Korea, October 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
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China Warns Trump's Latest Tariff Moves Could Damage Trade Ties

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping react as they hold a bilateral meeting at Gimhae International Airport, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Busan, South Korea, October 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping react as they hold a bilateral meeting at Gimhae International Airport, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Busan, South Korea, October 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

China warned Monday that US President Donald Trump's latest tariff moves could harm the countries' trade relationship, at the end of high-level talks in Paris.

Li Chenggang, China’s international trade representative, said the Chinese side had expressed serious concern about trade investigations into manufacturing in foreign countries that the Trump administration launched after the US Supreme Court struck down its earlier tariffs, The AP news reported.

“We are concerned that the possible results of such investigations may interfere with or damage the hard-won and stable China-US economic and trade relations,” Li told journalists. He said they discussed the possible extension of tariffs and non-tariff measures on both sides, and that China expressed concern over likely uncertainty as the US adjusts its measures. He said both sides agreed to make efforts to keep the tariffs stable.

The meeting was meant to prepare for Trump's planned trip to China in about two weeks, though the president has warned that it could be delayed. Li did not address that, and did not take questions.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who led the US delegation in Paris, said the talks “were constructive and they show the stability in the relationship," and noted: “The purpose of these meetings is to prevent any retaliation.”

Trump’s visit to China would be the first for a US president since he went in his first term in 2017. It would come five months after he met President Xi Jinping in the South Korean city of Busan.

The Iran war has emerged as a potential stumbling block as the US and China were patching up relations following a tariff war in which import taxes soared to triple digits. The two sides later agreed to a one-year truce.

Trump has suggested he may delay the much-anticipated China visit as he seeks Beijing's help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and calm oil prices that have soared during the Iran war.

But Bessent said any postponement wouldn't be to pressure China on that issue.

“If the president’s visit is postponed, it would have nothing to do with the Chinese making a commitment to the Straits of Hormuz," he told journalists.

“It would obviously be in their interest to do so, but a postponement would not be as a result of any asks from the president not being met,” Bessent added. "The postponement, if it happens, would be because the commander in chief of the United States military believes that he should stay in the United States while this war is being prosecuted.”

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, accompanying Bessent, said the talks sketched out “the general terms of a work plan” for a Trump-Xi meeting so that it could produce “potential deliverables.”

He said they also covered the trade investigations that concern China.

“We started these talks, really, by giving them a preview of what we’re doing on US trade policy as we adjust to the Supreme Court,” Greer said. “Remember: The president’s trade policy hasn’t changed. Our tools may change, and we’re conducting these investigations. We don’t want to prejudge them, and we had a good conversation with our counterparts about that process.”

World

Appeal Trial Opens for France’s Sarkozy Over Alleged Libyan Funding

FILED - 17 June 2011, Berlin: Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks at a press conference in the Chancellery in Berlin. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
FILED - 17 June 2011, Berlin: Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks at a press conference in the Chancellery in Berlin. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
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Appeal Trial Opens for France’s Sarkozy Over Alleged Libyan Funding

FILED - 17 June 2011, Berlin: Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks at a press conference in the Chancellery in Berlin. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
FILED - 17 June 2011, Berlin: Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks at a press conference in the Chancellery in Berlin. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was back in court Monday for a retrial on charges he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election, in a case that last year saw him become France's first modern-day head of state to go to prison.

A lower court in September found the right-wing politician -- who was president from 2007 to 2012 -- guilty of seeking to acquire funding from Muammar Gaddafi's Libya for the campaign that saw him elected.

Sarkozy -- who has denied any wrongdoing -- in October entered a Paris prison, serving 20 days before he was released pending the appeal, AFP reported.

The 71-year-old entered the Paris Appeal Court ahead of Monday's hearing, shaking hands with police and lawyers before taking his seat in the front row of the dock.

In the retrial, set to run until June 3, the former head of state is once again presumed innocent.

Sarkozy has faced a series of legal issues since leaving office and has already received two definitive convictions in other cases.

In one, he wore an electronic ankle tag for several months, until it was removed in May last year, after being convicted for trying to extract favours from a judge.

And in the other, he will have to serve more time over illegal financing of his failed 2012 re-election bid.

In the so-called "Libyan case", he has appealed a five-year prison sentence.

A lower court in September convicted Sarkozy of criminal conspiracy over what it said was a scheme to acquire Libyan funding for his 2007 presidential run.

But it did not conclude that Sarkozy received or used the funds for the campaign.

His legal team immediately appealed, but the lower court ordered him to be sent behind bars, citing the "exceptional gravity" of the conviction.

On October 21, he became the first former head of a European Union state to be incarcerated.

- Prison diaries -

In the initial trial, prosecutors had argued Sarkozy's aides, acting in his name, struck a deal with Gaddafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid two years later.

Investigators believe that in return, Gaddafi was promised help to restore his international image after Tripoli was blamed for the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and another over Niger in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers.

Members of Sarkozy's circle did not wish to comment before the retrial.

Sarkozy published a hastily written book about his time in prison titled "Diary of a Prisoner", with supporters lining up around a city block in Paris to buy a copy when it came out in December.

In the 216-page book, he recounts his mundane struggles with noise and low-quality food.

But he also hints at a possible alliance between the traditional right-wing Republicans party he once headed and the country's main far-right party to "rebuild the right".

He and his wife, singer and model Carla Bruni, face another possible trial over allegations that they tried to bribe a key prosecution witness in the Libya campaign financing case with the help of a paparazzi boss. They deny wrongdoing.