Russian forces have reportedly begun searching for the remains of two more Israeli soldiers, missing since 1982, in a cemetery near the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus.

The two soldiers, identified as Zvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz, have been missing since 1982 during the ‘Battle of Sultan Yaqoub’ in the First Lebanese War, along with another Israeli soldier, Zachary Baumel, whose remains were recovered and returned to Israel in 2019, according to a report by the Times of Israel newspaper.

As we approach the tenth anniversary of the Syrian uprising, the conflict rages on with no apparent end in sight. The role of the United Nations, the international organisation created to keep the peace and promote human rights in the world, has clearly been a dismal failure. Whilst no one claims that the Syrian conflict is the death knell for the UN, it is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine how the organisation can move forward from here. A litany of failures by the organisation has resulted in the Syrian people feeling abandoned by the international community.

A Belarusian veterans group claims that the Belarusian Armed Forces (BAF) are preparing to deploy two battalions of so-called “peacekeepers” to Syria in September 2021.

Political sources in Beirut said the assassination of Lebanese Shia political activist and prominent Hezbollah critic Lokman Slim in southern Lebanon on Thursday (February 4), in an area under direct Hezbollah control, was intended to intimidate the Lebanese people, especially the Shia community, and send a message from Iran’s regime to the new US administration.

Dignitaries and leading sheikhs in the predominantly Druze governorate of As-Suwayda in southern Syria have reportedly rejected a proposal to support the head of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, in the upcoming presidential elections.

Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper quoted a source, identified as a member of Al-Khas family, who said that Sheikh Nawaf Trad Al-Melhem, recently held a meeting with dignitaries and sheikhs from As-Suwayda governorate, including Sheikh Al-Aql Yusef Al-Jarbu`, representatives of leading families and social figures.

Germany intends to deport Assad propagandist, AfD employee Kevork Almassian back to Syria: report

Several media and human rights activists have confirmed a report from Germany’s Die Welt newspaper that the German Federal Ministry of Immigration and Refugees intends to withdraw asylum from Kevork Almassian, an Assad propagandist from Aleppo, now employed an MP of the Assad-allied neo-nazi AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) party.

By Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib, Arab News

Many people adopt new year’s resolutions. They usually involve quitting smoking, losing weight, spending more time with family or just being more positive. However, for Bashar Assad, his resolution seems to be to rebrand himself as a man of peace.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has claimed that Qassem Soleimani, the late head of Iran’s Quds Force, was responsible for convincing Russia to intervene militarily in Syria.