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Syria is gearing up for a critical national conference this week, bringing together representatives from its diverse social and political landscape to shape its future under the new rebel-led administration.
The conference's announcement followed statements by Syria's de facto leader, Ahmad Al Shara. He said elections in Syria could take up to four years and the process of drafting a new constitution may take three. Mohammad Khaled, a political affairs representative of the new administration led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), told The National that the conference will be held in Damascus on January 4 and 5.
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, on Monday issued what he called a final warning to Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militants to stop their missile attacks on Israel.
Mr Danon said that if they continued, they were at risk of suffering the same “miserable fate” as Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria's ousted dictator Bashar Al Assad. He also warned Iran that Israel can strike any target in the Middle East, including Iran, adding that Israel would not tolerate attacks by its proxies.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged 300 captives in a UAE-mediated swap confirmed by the UAE government on Monday. The UAE mediation resulted in the release of 150 Russian captives and 150 Ukrainian captives, Wam reported.
Russia's Defence Ministry said that each side had agreed to swap 150 prisoners of war. On X, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that captured Ukrainians were being returned from Russia to Ukraine ahead of the new year. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the successful new mediation effort, the 10th since the beginning of 2024, took the total number of released captives to 2,484.
