Middle Orient

U.N. chemical weapons investigators are ready to visit Syria to investigate the use of chemical weapons, but a deal has yet to be reached with the Syrian government after two weeks of talks on safety assurances for the team, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Syrian Prime Minister Wael Al-Halqi on Tuesday called on the Syrians displaced by the ongoing conflict to come back home. “Syria can accommodate all her sons and will emerge stronger from the crisis,” he said during a cabinet meeting chaired by him.

The Iraqi Ambassador to Serbia, Falah Abdul Hassan, discussed with the Serbian Parliament Speaker the mutual relations.

Turkey has requested Iran’s assistance to release the Turkish pilots kidnapped in Lebanon last week, according a Lebanese media report.

Turkey has closed its cultural centre and commercial office in Beirut after the kidnap of two Turkish Airlines pilots, Ankara’s ambassador to Lebanon said on Monday.

The head of the rebel Free Syrian Army has visited the coastal province of Latakia, according to video footage, a show of force in President Bashar al-Assad’s family’s home province. Several villages in Latakia, which is a stronghold of Assad’s

Moscow foresees the international conference on Syria could start after September only, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Monday. “It would hardly happen in September, because there will be other events, for instance, the UN General Assembly’s ministerial week,”  he said. 

The only way to end the ongoing violence in Syria lies in dialogue, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the UN-Arab League joint envoy to Syria

Spokesperson of the United Nations Interim Forces In Lebanon (UNIFIL) Andrea Tenenti said on Friday Turkey will withdraw troops deployed in south Lebanon by September. Turkey would meanwhile maintain its maritime presence in the area, Tenenti said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the need to find a political solution to the ongoing conflict in Syria as well as to renew momentum for the holding of an international conference to achieve that goal, as he discussed the crisis with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.