UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned civilian deaths in Gaza as “unacceptable” and appealed for it to “stop immediately” and for all parties to exercise maximum restraint, Deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Wednesday.
“Israel must abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law, including the proportional use of force and taking all feasible precautions to spare civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of military operations,” Haq said.

MOSCOW: Russia’s foreign minister on Wednesday hosted his counterparts from Turkiye, Syria and Iran for talks that marked the highest-level contact between Ankara and Damascus since the start of the Syrian civil war over a decade ago.

In his opening speech, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed hope that the meeting would pave the way to drafting a road map for normalizing Turkish-Syrian relations. 

DAMASCUS: A Syrian policeman was killed and four others wounded on Wednesday in a car bomb attack on a Damascus police station that was claimed by Daesh.

The Syrian Interior Ministry said a vehicle exploded at the Barzeh police station in the north of the capital, killing a lieutenant colonel and wounding four others.

“Investigations are ongoing to discover the circumstances of the incident,” it added in a statement, posting images of a mangled, burnt-out vehicle.

AMMAN: Celeste Wallander, the US assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, described Jordan as an important regional ally for Washington, the Jordan News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Speaking during an official visit to the country, she said: “We see Jordan as a key and strategic partner in the region. US defense relations with it are based on cooperation that dates back for many years, and the annual joint drills are the best example of that and they are one of the reasons for my visit.”

DUBAI: The UAE has condemned Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday during which a number of Palestinians were killed or injured, the Emirates News Agency reported.

The Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation urged Israeli authorities to halt the escalation of violence and avoid stoking the rising tensions and growing instability in the region.